Broadcom beats Qualcomm to take top fabless in Q2

Broadcom was the number one fabless company in terms of sales in the second quarter, beating Qualcomm, according to market research firm TrendForce.

The company had temporarily ceded its top position to Qualcomm in the first quarter.

Broadcom saw sales slow due to the trade dispute between US and China but saw demand for system semiconductors rise from remote work and 5G rise during the quarter.

The company posted US$3.976 billion in sales in the second quarter, a drop of 6.8% from the same time period a year ago.

Qualcomm, meanwhile, saw sales of US$3.87 billion, a rise of 6.7% from the previous year. 

Nvidia was third place with sales of US$3.461 billion, a tremendous growth of 47.1% from the same time period a year ago. Earnings of Mellanox Technologies which it acquired to expand its data center business was reflected.

Fourth place MediaTek saw sales of US$2.259 billion, a rise of 14.2% from a year prior. The company secured margins through 7-nanometer chips and low price points aimed at mid range 5G smartphones.

AMD took fifth place with sales of US$1.932 billion, a rise of 26.2% from a year prior. It saw demand rise from servers and notebooks.

Xilinx was sixth place a saw sales decline of 33.2% due to the downturn in the automobile industry from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fabless market is expected to grow in the third quarter from 5G smartphones, 5G networks and data centers, much like it was for the second quarter, TrendForce said.