Pure-play foundry TSMC and fabless chipmaker MediaTek both moved up in IC Insights' 2014 ranking of semiconductor companies by R&D spending. TSMC increased its R&D budget by 15% in 2014 while MediaTek's R&D spending for the year climbed 29%, according to IC Insights.

TSMC's 15% R&D spending increase in 2014, along with a decline in spending at Toshiba and STMicroelectronics, moved the company up two slots to number five in the ranking, IC Insights noted. As a result of the growing number of IC manufacturers adopting the fab-lite business model or becoming completely fabless, TSMC joined the group of top-10 R&D spenders for the first time in 2010.

MediaTek became a top-10 spender following its acquisition of fellow fabless supplier MStar in early 2014. MediaTek moved to ninth from 14th in 2013, IC Insights said.

Micron also moved up in IC Insights' 2014 ranking of semiconductor companies by R&D spending, despite a 4% decrease in its R&D spending for the year, according to IC Insights.

Intel topped all chip companies in R&D spending in 2014, accounting for 36% of the top-10 spending and 21% of the US$56.0 billion in total worldwide semiconductor R&D expenditures, IC Insights noted.

Intel and Samsung, the industry's two largest IDMs, continue to emphasize internal production capacity for advanced ICs in leading-edge wafer fabs. Consequently, spending on R&D programs at the two IC giants has kept growing, but at different rates in recent years, IC Insights observed. This is partly due to Samsung's ability to hold down some costs by participating in IBM's Common Platform joint development alliance, which also includes Globalfoundries as an R&D partner.

Qualcomm kept pace with Intel to remain the second-largest spender, a position it first achieved in 2012, IC Insights said. Qualcomm showed the largest percentage increase among the top 10 suppliers with a 62% boost in its R&D spending in 2014.

Fabless suppliers Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Broadcom had the highest R&D spending as a percent of sales ratios in 2014 at 31.3%, 28.5%, and 28.2%, respectively, according to IC Insights. Broadcom's spending in 2014 declined for the first time since 2003, while Nvidia's 2014 spending increased just 3%, but both companies have consistently spent in the range of 30% of revenue on R&D over the past several years.