Monday, 9 November 2026
Silicon Analytica
Every AI story is a chip story.
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How a chip gets made, and who gets paid

A simplified walk through the semiconductor value chain, from design software to the data center.

Process flow
EDA tools and semiconductor IP

Design software and reusable IP support chip development ↓

Equipment & Materials suppliers

Supply relevant wafer-fabrication and packaging/test activities ↓

  1. Design

    Define, simulate, verify and implement the circuit.

    Company roles: Fabless companies, IDM design teams and system-company design teams.

  2. Wafer fabrication

    Build transistors and interconnects on a wafer using repeated process steps.

    Company roles: Foundries and in-house IDM fabs.

  3. Assembly, packaging & test

    Prepare and connect dies in packages and test the resulting devices.

    Company roles: OSATs, foundries or in-house operations, depending on the product.

Alternative ways to organize production

Fabless: chip development and commercialization, with wafer fabrication outsourced.

IDM: design plus substantial in-house manufacturing; can cover several activities and still use external suppliers.

Solid arrows show the simplified production sequence. Dashed support markers describe generic supplier roles, not relationships between named companies. Fabless and IDM are alternatives, not consecutive steps. Packaging/test can be outsourced to an OSAT, provided by a foundry or done in-house. Actual flows vary and include repeated processing and feedback.

View sources
  1. Synopsys — About Us ↗

    Silicon design software and semiconductor IP.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  2. Cadence — Tools and IP portfolio ↗

    Electronic design automation, semiconductor IP and system analysis.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  3. Arm — Licensing ↗

    Processor architectures, cores and reusable IP; licence and royalty model.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  4. Siemens EDA — Siemens EDA ↗

    EDA software, hardware and services for the design, verification and manufacturing of integrated circuits and electronic systems.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  5. AMD — Supply chain responsibility ↗

    Outsourced wafer fabrication and assembly/test.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  6. AMD — 2024 Form 10-K — Manufacturing ↗

    Reliance on external foundries for wafer fabrication; historical model evidence, not current financial data.

    Publication date: 5 February 2025 (filing date). Official company source.

  7. ASML — Our products ↗

    Lithography systems, with computational modelling, metrology and inspection.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  8. Tokyo Electron — Products and Services ↗

    Deposition, etch, cleaning and coater/developer systems.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  9. Intel — Company overview ↗

    Chip products and manufacturing; Intel Foundry is a foundry business, not a separate pure-play group.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  10. Intel — Update on internal foundry model ↗

    Product and manufacturing businesses, external foundry capacity and foundry services. Historical explanation of the organizational model, not current operating figures.

    Publication date: 21 June 2023. Official company source.

  11. Samsung — About Samsung Semiconductor ↗

    Memory, System LSI and Foundry within Samsung Electronics.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  12. TSMC — Dedicated Foundry ↗

    Dedicated foundry manufacturing for customer products, plus packaging.

    Publication date: not established. Direct corporate-page access blocked; official indexed text used.

  13. Amkor — Amkor Overview ↗

    Outsourced semiconductor assembly, packaging and test.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  14. SUMCO — Production Processes ↗

    Silicon wafer manufacture, distinct from chip fabrication.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

Three dimensions, not one list

Companies can operate across multiple parts of the semiconductor ecosystem.

Business model / industry role
Fabless, IDM, Foundry, EDA, Semiconductor IP, Equipment and OSAT describe how a company participates; Materials & Wafers supplies manufacturing inputs.
Product exposure
Logic, Memory, Analog, Power and RF describe what chips do. Memory is a product category: a memory producer can be an IDM.
Process expertise
Lithography, Etch, Deposition, Inspection and Packaging describe technologies and activities, not mutually exclusive company types.

Each company has a primary educational placement plus supplementary tags. Foundry-business examples are explicitly labelled exceptions, not a second primary placement for their parent groups. Tags are illustrative, not complete portfolios. The site’s broader market segments combine exposures and are not a mutually exclusive list of business models.

Company roles

Fabless Chip Designers

What does it do?
Designs and commercializes chips while outsourcing wafer fabrication.
What does it sell?
Chips and, depending on the company, boards, systems, software, platforms and licences.
Who are its customers?
System makers, cloud operators and other users of computing and communications products.
How does it make money?
Product and system sales, software/services and, where applicable, licensing.

Company examples

  • Nvidia

    Product exposure: Logic

  • AMD

    Product exposure: Logic

  • Qualcomm

    Also licensing · Product exposure: Logic, RF

Go deeper

Fabless is a manufacturing model, not a claim that a company only designs chips. Qualcomm remains a fabless example despite its separate licensing business. No named supplier relationship is implied.

View sources
  1. Nvidia — NVIDIA in Brief ↗

    Accelerated-computing products, systems and software; manufacturing model is cross-checked against company filings.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  2. Nvidia — 2024 Form 10-K — Manufacturing ↗

    Explicit fabless manufacturing strategy; third-party suppliers manufacture semiconductor wafers. Historical filing used for the manufacturing-model definition, not current financial data.

    Publication date: 21 February 2024 (filing date). Official company source.

  3. AMD — Supply chain responsibility ↗

    Outsourced wafer fabrication and assembly/test.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  4. AMD — 2024 Form 10-K — Manufacturing ↗

    Reliance on external foundries for wafer fabrication; historical model evidence, not current financial data.

    Publication date: 5 February 2025 (filing date). Official company source.

  5. Qualcomm — About Qualcomm ↗

    Semiconductor business and separate technology-licensing business.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  6. Qualcomm — Integrated Fabless Manufacturing ↗

    Fabless manufacturing model separate from the licensing business.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

Sources & methodology

Qualitative educational classification by Silicon Analytica. Examples are not exhaustive lists, rankings, market shares or evidence of supplier/customer relationships. Company roles, product exposure and process expertise are assessed separately.

Source review: 13 October 2026. Corporate and product pages are generally undated; publication dates are not established unless explicitly stated below. A reporting-period end is not a publication date. Official indexed text was used where direct access was blocked, as identified per source; live page access should be rechecked before publication.

Business-model and customer descriptions summarize the relevant role, not every activity or contract of each group. Product portfolios can change; no current financial or manufacturing-capacity claims are made.

  1. Synopsys — About Us ↗

    Silicon design software and semiconductor IP.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  2. Cadence — Tools and IP portfolio ↗

    Electronic design automation, semiconductor IP and system analysis.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  3. Arm — Licensing ↗

    Processor architectures, cores and reusable IP; licence and royalty model.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  4. Siemens EDA — Siemens EDA ↗

    EDA software, hardware and services for the design, verification and manufacturing of integrated circuits and electronic systems.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  5. Siemens — Siemens closes Mentor Graphics acquisition ↗

    Mentor Graphics was acquired by Siemens and became part of its software business; the EDA business now presents itself as Siemens EDA.

    Publication date: 30 March 2017 (press release). Official company source.

  6. Nvidia — NVIDIA in Brief ↗

    Accelerated-computing products, systems and software; manufacturing model is cross-checked against company filings.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  7. Nvidia — 2024 Form 10-K — Manufacturing ↗

    Explicit fabless manufacturing strategy; third-party suppliers manufacture semiconductor wafers. Historical filing used for the manufacturing-model definition, not current financial data.

    Publication date: 21 February 2024 (filing date). Official company source.

  8. AMD — Supply chain responsibility ↗

    Outsourced wafer fabrication and assembly/test.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  9. AMD — 2024 Form 10-K — Manufacturing ↗

    Reliance on external foundries for wafer fabrication; historical model evidence, not current financial data.

    Publication date: 5 February 2025 (filing date). Official company source.

  10. Qualcomm — About Qualcomm ↗

    Semiconductor business and separate technology-licensing business.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  11. Qualcomm — Integrated Fabless Manufacturing ↗

    Fabless manufacturing model separate from the licensing business.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  12. ASML — Our products ↗

    Lithography systems, with computational modelling, metrology and inspection.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  13. Applied Materials — Deposition systems for the angstrom era ↗

    Materials engineering and deposition; examples are not a complete portfolio.

    Publication date: not established. Official indexed text used; publication date not independently established.

  14. Lam Research — Our Processes ↗

    Etch, deposition, strip and wafer cleaning.

    Publication date: not established. Direct access blocked; official indexed text used.

  15. Tokyo Electron — Products and Services ↗

    Deposition, etch, cleaning and coater/developer systems.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  16. KLA — Products ↗

    Process control, defect inspection and review, and metrology.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  17. Intel — Company overview ↗

    Chip products and manufacturing; Intel Foundry is a foundry business, not a separate pure-play group.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  18. Intel — Update on internal foundry model ↗

    Product and manufacturing businesses, external foundry capacity and foundry services. Historical explanation of the organizational model, not current operating figures.

    Publication date: 21 June 2023. Official company source.

  19. Samsung — About Samsung Semiconductor ↗

    Memory, System LSI and Foundry within Samsung Electronics.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  20. Samsung Foundry — Company Info ↗

    Foundry services as a business within Samsung Electronics.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  21. TSMC — Dedicated Foundry ↗

    Dedicated foundry manufacturing for customer products, plus packaging.

    Publication date: not established. Direct corporate-page access blocked; official indexed text used.

  22. GlobalFoundries — Design support and foundry resources ↗

    External customer access to design, foundry and production resources.

    Publication date: not established. Direct corporate-page access blocked; official indexed text used.

  23. UMC — UMC and Intel announce foundry collaboration ↗

    Foundry services for external customers; historical role evidence, not current capacity figures.

    Publication date: 25 January 2024. Direct corporate-page access blocked; official indexed text used.

  24. ASE Technology — Company Profile ↗

    Semiconductor packaging and test; the group also includes electronics manufacturing services.

    Publication date: not established. Direct access blocked; official indexed text used.

  25. ASE — Inside the OSAT business ↗

    Outsourced assembly and test services; historical business-model explanation, not current rankings.

    Publication date: not established. Official indexed text used.

  26. Amkor — Amkor Overview ↗

    Outsourced semiconductor assembly, packaging and test.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  27. Shin-Etsu Chemical — Silicon Wafers ↗

    Silicon wafer supply within a diversified materials group.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

  28. SUMCO — Production Processes ↗

    Silicon wafer manufacture, distinct from chip fabrication.

    Publication date: not established. Official company source.

General educational information, not investment advice.