Business Week's No. 10 - MEMC Electronic Materials

No. 10: MEMC Electronic Materials

Industry: Semiconductor Equipment
Sales: $1.9 billion
Net Income: $826.2 million

You know all those chips going into computers, cell phones, iPods, and other consumer electronics? Dig way back down through the supply chain, and you'll find MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR). Based in St. Peters, Mo., and led by CEO Nabeel Gareeb, MEMC not only makes the silicon wafers from which chips are cut but also manufactures the raw material used to make the wafers themselves, called polysilicon. MEMC may be insulated from an expected slowdown in global electronics chip sales, thanks to its investments in the solar energy market. With oil and other energy prices continuing to rise sharply, solar cells are expected to account for 38% of wafer demand by 2010, up from 23% today.