IC Insights forecasts R&D spending by the semiconductor industry (integrated device manufacturers, fabless semiconductor companies and pure-play wafer foundries) to rise 8% this year to $49.2 billion. In the first quarter, the industry’s R&D expenditures increased 12% to $11.1 billion. In 2007, R&D spending rose 8% to $45.7 billion, or 17.9% of revenues, due to increased spending on integrated circuit design. In 2008, semiconductor companies are expected to try to control costs by shifting a portion of their development to foundries. The top five R&D spenders in 2007 were integrated device manufacturers Intel, Samsung, TI, Toshiba and AMD. Intel’s R&D spending represented 12.6% of the industry’s total R&D expenditures. The top R&D spending fabless company was Broadcom, the eighth largest spender overall. Among foundries, TSMC, UMC and Chartered spent the most on R&D in 2007. Source: IC Insights