Apple has overtaken HP to become the largest buyer of semiconductors amongst original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

This revelation by IHS iSuppli Market Intelligence, comes the same day Steve Jobs announced that he wanted to build a 12,000 people strong spaceship in Cappuccino land. IHS Isuppli finds that in 2010 alone Apple spent $17.5 billion on semiconductors.

The rise of the Iphone and Ipad has contributed the most to the gains, the analysts found, and has pushed up the firm’s chip consumption by about 80 per cent from 2009 when Apple was in third place.

Now it sits at the top of the chip spending tree and has HP on its left in second place and Samsung on its right in third.