Nvidia, AMD Show Growth, Global Chip Revenue Expected to Climb

Nvidia and AMD were among nine global semiconductor suppliers that showed revenue growth from the fourth quarter of 2008 to the first of 2009, according to iSuppli. While the quarter was abysmal overall, with global revenue declining $44.3 billion, iSuppli reports that revenue is expected to rise.

It seems we may indeed have seen the bottom of the global semiconductor market, and that revenues in the fourth quarter of 2009 are likely exceed those from the fourth quarter of 2008, researcher iSuppli is reporting.

The view from the bottom, however, is that worldwide semiconductor revenue in the first quarter of 2009 declined $44.3 billion-down 18.8 percent from 2008's fourth-quarter revenue of $54.5 billion, and down 33.8 percent from the $66.8 billion of the first quarter of 2008, according to iSuppli.

"Of the [more than 130] semiconductor suppliers tracked by iSuppli on a quarterly basis, only six manage to expand their revenue in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2008," Dale Ford, senior vice president of market intelligence for iSuppli, said in a statement. "Even among those six suppliers, four increased their revenue by only 1 to 3 percent."

The six suppliers were Dialog Semiconductor, Macronix International, MediaTek, Osram, Telegent Systems and TriQuint Semiconductor. The standout among these was MediaTek, which reportedly expanded its revenue by 10 percent both sequentially and year over year.

Between the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, revenue growth was experienced by nine companies: Advanced Micro Devices, Himax Technologies, Jilin Sino-Microelectronics, MediaTek, Nanya Technology, Nvidia, Realtek Semiconductor, Spreadtrum Communications and Wuxi China Resources Huajing Microelectronics, according to iSuppli, though percentages weren't offered.

While the research company reported that every major world region saw double-digit percentage declines in semiconductor revenue in the first quarter, some regions fared better than others. Most fortunate were companies headquartered in the Americas, which reportedly saw declines in U.S. dollars of 30.8 percent since the third quarter of 2008.

Japanese suppliers' revenues fell 43.5 percent during the same period, and companies in Europe saw a decline of 44.5 percent. However, according to iSuppli, the numbers vary when listed in the countries' home currencies rather than in dollars. In Euros, the European supplier revenue fell only 36.1 percent, and in yen, Japanese revenues fell nearly 51 percent.

On the bright side, again, iSuppli said it expects that on a sequential basis, "revenue will rise by 7.1 percent in the second quarter, by 10.4 percent in the third quarter and by 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter."