The preliminary list of the top 20 chip manufacturers have been released by iSuppli. The semi-conductor market being bad does get reflected in the list. Intel leads the pack, no surprises there. Nvidia, the popular makers of GPUs barely made it to the list ranked at no. 20.

CNET reports, “Memory chip manufacturers are some of the hardest hit. South Korea-based Hynix, which dropped from No. 6 to No. 9, and Micron Technology (No. 16) are both restructuring. Micron is reducing staff and shutting down facilities, while Hynix seeks outside investors.” Even the invincible memory chip maker, Samsung (world’s 2nd largest chip-maker), is expecting a decline of 9.1 percent in revenues for the year.

iSuppli said. “Only two out of the Top-29 memory IC suppliers, i.e. companies that are expected to earn roughly $100 million or more in 2008, will see their memory IC revenue grow in 2008. For the memory IC business, 2008 can only be described as disastrous“.

We would say even the market being bad, manufacturers should push more in marketing, probably much more than the usual fruitful years. What to say, desperate time calls for desperate measures !

[source: cnet.com, data credit: iSuppli]