ABSTRACT
There are more than one hundred American firms manufacturing semiconductors. The US semiconductor industry is unique among the world’s major producers in that it consists of both captive and merchant producers. Captive producers generally consume most or all of their own semiconductor output and may make additional purchases from the outside to satisfy internal needs. The field of captive semiconductor producers is dominated by IBM and Western Electric, which together accounted for 75.8 percent of IC production in 1982. IBM is not only the largest captive IC producer but also the largest producer of ICs in the world. The field of US merchant semiconductor manufacturers is more diverse though output is also highly concentrated among the larger of these firms. The largest twenty firms produce 80 percent of the total merchant output. Texas Instruments and Motorola are the two largest merchant IC producers.
