Global semiconductor revenues grew to US$70.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010, up 2% from US$69.2 billion in the prior fourth quarter, according to iSuppli. The research firm's previous estimate was for 1.1% compared to the fourth quarter of 2009.
"The first three months of 2010 delivered the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential growth in semiconductor revenues - the longest period of consecutive expansion in the industry since 2004," said Dale Ford, senior VP, market intelligence services.
Sequential revenue growth in the first quarter is a highly unusual event in the semiconductor industry, iSuppli indicated. The first-quarter typically is a slower season of the year for chip sales compared even to the fourth quarter, whereas the third quarter is typically the strongest quarter for sequential growth.
"Out of the more than 150 leading semiconductor suppliers tracked by iSuppli on a quarterly basis, only six saw their revenue decline in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter of 2009," Ford noted. "Two-thirds of these suppliers were able to grow or maintain flat revenues from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter 2010. This represents a testament to the broad-based strength of the semiconductor industry recovery since the market hit bottom in early 2009."

Ranking renaissance for Renesas
Newly-formed semiconductor supplier Renesas Electronics made a strong debut on iSuppli's semiconductor top-10 list in the first quarter, coming in at No. 5. Formed from the merger of Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics, Renesas Electronics commenced business operations on April 1. The combined revenues of the two companies gave Renesas' revenues of US$2.9 billion and a 4.1% market share in the first quarter.
"The creation of Renesas Electronics has resulted in the establishment of a market share powerhouse in the microcontroller (MCU) market," Ford said. "Prior to the merger, Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics were the No. 1 and No. 2 suppliers of MCUs. As the No. 1 supplier of MCUs, Renesas Electronics in the first quarter generated more than 3.5 times the revenue of the next closest MCU supplier: Freescale Semiconductor."
This kind of market share domination is surpassed in only two other segments of the semiconductor business: in microprocessors with industry giant Intel; and in digital signal processors (DSPs) with front-runner Texas Instruments (TI), iSuppli said.
Renesas Electronics also places in the top rankings of a wide array of semiconductor markets tracked by iSuppli. The company in the first quarter ranked among the top-10 suppliers in 13 separate market segments and sub segments. It also is ranked among the top five in eight segments - general purpose logic, display drivers, application specific logic, logic ASICs, analog ASICs, discrete components, radio frequency and microwave components and small signal and other discretes.

Macro growth for Micron
The strongest performance among the Top 10 suppliers was posted by Micron Technology, which achieved a stunning 14.1% increase in revenues in the first quarter to US$1.8 billion, up from US$1.6 billion in the fourth quarter.
Micron benefited from strong revenue growth in DRAM, iSuppli said. The DRAM market represented one of the hottest segments of the global semiconductor industry in the first quarter, with revenues rising by 8.8% to US$9.4 billion, up from US$8.7 billion in the fourth quarter.
On the opposite end of the scale was STMicroelectronics, which suffered a 10% decline in revenue compared to the fourth quarter, iSuppli observed. However, STMicroelectronics' revenues grew by more than 40% compared to the first quarter of 2009 which compares favorably to other non-memory suppliers among the top semiconductor makers.