USA: IC Insights released its ranking of the leading IC foundries for 2007. As shown, 11 of the top 14 foundry companies listed are based in the Asia-Pacific region. Europe-headquartered X-Fab, which merged with 1st Silicon in 2006, is the only non-Asia-Pacific pure-play foundry company in the top 14 group.

The "Big 4" (TSMC, UMC, Chartered, and SMIC) have dominated the foundry market over the past five years. With sales of almost $10 billion, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) was clearly the leading foundry supplier in 2007. Its revenue increased 1 percent over 2006. TSMC's sales were only 11 percent less than the combined foundry sales of the other companies listed in the top 14 ranking.

UMC maintained its second place ranking with sales of $3.8 billion, an increase of 2 percent over 2006. SMIC increased its sales 6 percent and edged slightly ahead of Chartered in 2007 to take over the number three position in the ranking (a position it lost in 1Q08). Together, these "big four" accounted for just over two-thirds (68 percent) of the $24.5 billion foundry market in 2007.

TSMC, UMC, SMIC, and Chartered are pure-play foundries — companies that do not offer IC products of their own design, but instead focus on producing ICs for other companies. In 2007, pure play foundries accounted for 84% of the total foundry market.

Integrated device manufacturer (IDM) foundries accounted for 16 percent of the 2007 foundry market. IDM foundries are defined as those companies that offer foundry services in addition to their own ICs. IDM foundries include IBM, NEC, TI, and Samsung.