Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. has cracked the top 10 of the largest chipmakers in the world for the first time.
Record sales in 2010 helped the company move up two spots in the rankings to No. 10, according to Stamford, Conn.-based market researcher Gartner Inc.
Broadcom joins big names such as Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Toshiba Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. in the top 10.
Intel tops the list with $42 billion in revenue in 2010.
Broadcom moved up the rankings thanks to a stellar year in 2010 in which the company saw record sales and profits as demand increased for its chips for tablet computers, smartphones, set-top boxes, broadband modems, networking gear and other products.
Acquisitions also boosted Broadcom’s revenue, which rose 52% from a year earlier to $6.8 billion.
That easily outperformed competitors on the list as Broadcom’s three business units—broadband, mobile and wireless and infrastructure and networking—performed well last year.
Broadcom is only one of two so-called fabless chipmakers on the list. The other is No. 9 San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc.
Fabless chipmakers design chips but don’t operate factories, known as wafer fabrication plants. Instead, they hire contractor manufacturers, typically in Asia, to produce their chips.
