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Broadcom Keeps Grip as Largest OC Chipmaker

Giant chipmaker Broadcom Inc., a new member of the trillion-dollar market cap club, is maintaining a hefty presence in Irvine, including software managers and semiconductor engineers.

Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO), with headquarters in Palo Alto, easily retained its No. 1 spot on this yearโ€™s Business Journal list of largest chipmakers by headcount, keeping its local number at 1,300.

Broadcom joined the $1 trillion valuation club in December, where other members include Meta, Alphabet and Tesla. It is now one of only eight U.S.-based public tech companies to currently hold that mark.

Broadcom, founded by Henry Samueli and Henry Nicholas in 1991 in Irvine, was sold to Avago Technologies in 2016 for $37 billion in cash and stock, with the buyer keeping the OC firmโ€™s name and local operations.

The overall OC headcount for the 18 chipmakers surveyed by the Business Journal was 4,078, inching up about 0.2% from a year ago.

Israel-based Tower Semiconductor (Nasdaq: TSEM) was second, as its Newport Beach headcount was steady at 860, despite a series of temporary furloughs last year.

Irvine-based Skyworks Solution Inc. was No. 3 on this yearโ€™s Business Journal list, as its local employee number edged up 7.4% to 563 (Nasdaq: SWKS).

Data Center Gains Outpace Rest: Marvell

Coming in at No. 4 was Marvell Technology Inc., which has its headquarters in Santa Clara and has 320 local employees (Nasdaq: MRVL).

โ€œSales of chips for data centers (processors, optical devices switches) rose while sales to telecommunications carriers, automotive customers and enterprises declined with an overall industry decline in those three markets,โ€ a Marvell spokesperson told the Business Journal.

The spokesperson added: โ€œData center gains, however, outpaced them. Data centers now account for around 70% of revenue. A good portion of our data center revenue is for chips for AI systems.โ€ He noted that โ€œrevenue is rising.โ€

Apple Inc., which is Skyworksโ€™ largest customer, was at No. 5. The company for years reportedly has been seeking to build a separate chip-making presence in Irvine, though details have been difficult to obtain (Nasdaq: AAPL).

Aliso Viejo-based Indie Semiconductor Inc., which develops chips for automobiles, was steady at 100 employees (Nasdaq: INDI), staying at the ninth spot.

Syntiant, Movandi, Faraday

Irvine-based Faraday Semi Inc. surged 50% from 10 employees to 15 as of January.
โ€œThe forecast for semiconductor in 2025 indicates a blend of new opportunities and slowdown in several mature segments,โ€ a Faraday spokesperson told the Business Journal.
โ€œAI and associated chipsets are key driving factors shaping the semiconductor industryโ€™s future. This may lead to short impact on different companies in various regions, depending on their area of focus, thus OCโ€™s chipmakers may see a reduction of numbers of employees,โ€ according to the spokesperson.

Others on the Business Journal list include the following Irvine-based firms:
Syntiant, the chip and AI company, has 42 local employees while the companywide headcount jumped to nearly 1,700 with a key acquisition.

The headcount at Menlo Microsystems dipped from 44 a year ago to 38 at the start of January. The company is aiming for more defense work (see story, page 3).

Movandi, a 5G wireless technology equipment maker, trimmed its workforce to 36 from 40.

Desmond Celo and Emily Santiago-Molina contributed to this report.

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Kevin Costelloe
Kevin Costelloe
Tech reporter at Orange County Business Journal
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