But with prices falling again, to below $9, the five main Japanese chip makers, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi Electric, have run into a brick wall.
A main supplier, the chip maker Cirrus Logic, gave a disappointing revenue forecast, fueling worries about weakening demand for the iPhone and iPad.
As Asia's cheap capital has disappeared, so has the main advantage its chip makers had.
Bloomberg noted an IHS analyst predicts Apple will sell more than 100 million iPhones of various generations in 2012, and that Qualcomm will be the maker of the main chip in 80% of the products.
America's eBay bid an undisclosed sum for a platform that will let it expand in Europe.Advanced Micro Devices, a chip maker that is Intel's main rival in the PC market, gave warning of big second-quarter losses.
The chip maker Intel recently bought Symantec's main security technology rival, McAfee, for $7.7 billion.
The main problem was lack of electricity, which left Taiwan's largest chip maker becalmed when worldwide demand for its semiconductors was running at a fever pitch.
Texas Instruments, the chip maker, dropped 10 cents to $28.88.
The chip maker OmniVision Technologies tumbled 16.08 percent on earnings weakness.
The chip maker Intel gained 3.6 percent to $22.16.
