Top Semiconductor Foundries Capacity 2015-2016 (Infographic)

On a yearly basis, AnySilicon provides a snapshot of top semiconductor foundries wafer capacity, based on available data on their website. In our last yearly report , we have presented semiconductor foundries capacity ranking of the top 4 pure-play wafer fabs: TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, UMC and SMIC. This year, our report has been expanded to include top 10 wafer foundries consisting of both pure-play and non-pure-play foundries. The results are interesting because we have managed to include Samsung’s fab capacity as well.

Each of the top semiconductor foundries holds several production sites that address different technology nodes and wafer sizes. Naturally, the goal of each company is to sell 100% of the production capacity (sometimes even more) to reach revenue goals.

Why is wafer capacity important? Capacity means potential sales. For example, if GloFo will sell its entire yearly wafer capacity it will still not be able to reach to TSMC’s revenues. Simply because TSMC has more wafer capacity to sell. Thus if GloFo is planning to be #1 player in the semiconductor market they need to double their wafer production capacity.

Intel is by far the largest semiconductor player in the market but they don’t have more capacity than GloFo. The reason that Intel generates more revenue than GloFo is because Intel has a different product:  they sell complete chips rather than wafers. They sell solutions to a market that can accept higher margins. When companies sell solution their gross margin per product is higher, therefore Intel is able to generate more sales even they have smaller wafer capacity.

 Click here to download the Semiconductor Foundry Capacity Ranking (9MB).