Huawei’s HiSilicon becomes first mainland Chinese chip company to enter top 10 in global sales, says IC Insights
- Some of HiSilicon’s surge could be attributed to stockpiling by its parent Huawei as Washington mulls new measures to prevent the Chinese firm from using US tech
- TSMC, which maintained its No 3 spot on the IC Insights top 10 list, derived 14 per cent of its sales last year from HiSilicon
HiSilicon, Huawei Technologies’ in-house chip design company, has become the first mainland Chinese semiconductor firm to enter the top 10 in global sales, according to a report by IC Insights.
The US semiconductor market research company reported that HiSilicon’s sales surged 54 per cent year on year to about US$2.67 billion in the first quarter, placing it in No 10 spot for the first time. However, 90 per cent of HiSilicon’s sales go to its parent Huawei, according to the report.
As a so-called fabless company, HiSilicon outsources its chip fabrication to pure play foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which saw first quarter sales jump 45 per cent to US$10.3 billion, bolstered in part by its business with HiSilicon.
HiSilicon’s sales surge comes at a time when its parent, Chinese tech giant Huawei, is scrambling to replace US chips from the likes of Qualcomm with devices designed in-house due to trade sanctions imposed by Washington.
The Chinese chip company also recently overtook Qualcomm, which ranks No 7 on IC Insights’ semiconductor sales list, as China’s top smartphone processor supplier for the first time, according to an earlier report by Chinese research firm CINNO.
“HiSilicon jumped up five spots in the ranking to 10th place, making it the first [mainland] China-based semiconductor supplier to be ranked in the worldwide top 10 listing,” IC Insights said in its report.