Their clients are mostly in the semiconductor field and include Xilinx and Broadcom in the U.S. and Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore.

FORBES: The Real California Problem

Ruiz has vowed to shed half of the company's manufacturing capacity by 2002 and give it to foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor and Chartered Semiconductor.

FORBES: Motorola inside

Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore has trimmed pay by up to 20%.

ECONOMIST: Business in Asia

Applied Materials' customers include Samsung Group, ASM International, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Elpida Memory, Inotera Memories, Photronics, Powerchip Semiconductor and Semiconductor Manufacturing International, according to Revere Data.

FORBES: Magazine Article

According to these criteria, Vtech, an electronics maker in Hong Kong (FORBES GLOBAL, May 28), and Chartered Semiconductor, a leading semiconductor maker in Singapore, are on the endangered list (see table).

FORBES: Classic Hedge, Asian Flavor

Though Intel and TI are integrated device manufacturers investing billions annually in new wafer fabs, Qualcomm has been able to maintain generally lower costs by farming out production of their leading edge designs to foundries -- such as Taiwan Semiconductor, Chartered Semiconductor and IBM--and moving to the next node (now 65 nanometers) whenever costs dictate.

FORBES