In this video, Motley Fool senior technology analyst Eric Bleeker talks about another victory for Qualcomm (QCOM 1.23%). It takes a seat at the top of the new IHS rankings of largest semiconductor manufacturers for the year 2012. Qualcomm's last big win was when it surpassed Intel (INTC 0.63%) to become the largest chip company by market capitalization.
Qualcomm is the biggest winner on this list. Not only has its chip business has grown fastest of the 20 largest companies (with 27% sales growth), but also it moved ahead of Texas Instruments (TXN 1.54%) to reach the third position in the list behind Intel and Samsung.
One important note regarding this report is the existing line between the companies active in mobile chip business, which mostly have seen growth, and companies without mobile chip business that are in red. Other losers on this list include Intel, with a decline of 2.4%; AMD (AMD 3.44%), the worst performer with an 18% decline; TI's 14% decline; and Marvell Technology's 8% decline. On the other hand, the winners include Samsung, with 7% growth, and NVIDIA (NVDA 3.77%) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM), with 9% and 10% growth, respectively.
