Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's top chipmaker, narrowed its gap with No. 1 global player Intel Corp. in chip sales in the first quarter of the year, data showed Friday.
  

Samsung's chip sales increased 6 percent on-year in the January-March period to $9.33 billion, the data compiled by industry tracker IC Insights showed. In contrast, Intel's semiconductor shipment remained nearly unchanged at $11.63 billion over the cited period.
  

Foundry operator Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. followed with $6.9 billion in sales in the first quarter, up 44 percent on-year. U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. raked in $4.4 billion from chip sales.
  

SK hynix, which ranked sixth for all of 2014, climbed one notch in the first quarter of the year with sales of $4.3 billion, up 25 percent from a year earlier. Its rival U.S. Micron Technology Inc. slipped one step as its sales only inched up 1 percent on-year to $4.07 billion.
  

"With Qualcomm's sales hitting a soft patch and SK hynix continuing to increase its share in the memory market, IC Insights believes that the company could move past Qualcomm into the fourth spot when the full-year sales totals for this year are tallied," IC Insights said.
  

Texas Instruments Inc. came in seventh with $2.9 billion in sales, followed by Japan's Toshiba Corp. with $2.75 billion and U.S.-based Broadcom Corp. with $2.05 billion won. Taiwan's MediaTek Inc. posted $1.7 billion in sales. (Yonhap)