PHILADELPHIA — The world's biggest semiconductor companies by revenue rank not only among the best in their respective industry segments but are also more likely to have huge piles of cash that can be used to fund acquisitions, R&D and product development, according to a review of financial filings by EE Times.

The top cash-rich IC vendors also consistently garner higher valuations in equity markets than rivals with limited liquidity, putting them in an even stronger financial position relative to their peers in the industry.

Our rankings are based on IC makers' cash and other short-term investments at the end of the second quarter. Long-term debt was stripped out of the calculations in determining current cash position.

Not surprisingly, Intel Corp. leads the pack, followed by Qualcomm, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), Texas Instruments Inc. and Broadcom, in that order. The stock valuation of Intel, Qualcomm and TSMC revealed that investors place a high premium on chip manufacturers' ability to generate huge cash flow, which can be returned to shareholders through share repurchases or be used to fund strategic acquisitions.

Click on image to enlarge.

Not all the top revenue generators in the semiconductor market can lay claim to huge cash piles, however. STMicroelectronics NV, which market researcher IC Insights earlier this year ranked as the world's fifth-largest IC vendor by sales, did not crack our list of cash-rich chip makers. After adjusting for long-term debts, ST ended the June quarter with negative cash balance of $41 million.

ST is not alone. Many other major chip makers owe more than they have in the kitty. The group includes memory maker Micron Technology Inc., which wrapped up its fiscal quarter ended June 4, 2009, with $1.3 billion in cash and short-term investments and $2.8 billion in long-term debts, leaving it with net debt of $1.5 billion.

Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is in an even more precarious position despite recent efforts to shore up the company's balance sheet. The graphics IC and microprocessor vendor reported available cash and short-term investments rose to $2.5 billion in the June quarter while long-term debts fell a tad to $5.2 billion. AMD's net cash position was minus $2.7 billion.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc.'s struggle with a boat-load of long-term debts, coupled with declining sales and the resulting hit on cash flow, knocked it out of our rankings. The Austin, Texas,-based company had negative cash position of $6.2 billion in the second quarter. It reported cash and short-term investments of $1.3 billion and $7.5 billion in long-term debt.

NXP Semiconductor isn't too far behind Freescale. The Dutch IC vendor has been trying to renegotiate or retire long-term debts with some success, but it still ranks high among the most debt-laden companies in the chip industry with total long-term debts of $5.4 billion and only $1.3 billion in cash and short-term investments.