Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's leading tech firm, is the world's second-largest semiconductor company in terms of market capitalization, data showed Thursday, despite a share price drop.

Samsung's market value totaled $261.9 billion as of last Friday, only behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), whose market cap reached $306.3 billion, according to data analyzed by corporate tracker CEO Score and Yonhap News Agency.

TSMC is the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, accounting for 51.9 percent of the global foundry market in the second quarter of the year, according to data from market tracker TrendForce.

Samsung, the world's leading memory chipmaker, which also produces end products like smartphones and TVs, had an 18.8 percent market share in the global foundry industry in the April-June period.

TSMC's share price increased 2.8 percent from the beginning of this year, while Samsung's share price dropped 4.5 percent over the same period, CEO Score data showed.

The two were followed by Nvidia Corp., a graphics processing unit designer whose market cap soared 75 percent in seven months to $257.7 billion on increased demand for its products amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Intel Corp., the world's largest chip company by sales, came in fourth at $252 billion after its share price dropped 3.8 percent from the beginning of the year, according to CEO Score data.

Broadcom Inc. was fifth on the list at $128.4 billion, followed by Texas Instruments at $119 billion and Qualcomm Inc. at $104 billion. (Yonhap)