We think there will be a few more legs of semis consolidation. So we compiled a list of 5 semis companies who we think will survive:
1. ADI & TI
2. QCOM
3. NVDA
4. Some chip company from China
5. The smoldering remains of Intel, probably owned by others.
Google missed a big opportunity with Stadia, it just wasn’t the one they were pursuing. We will gladly take GCP off their hands.
Google is promoting the growth of open source tools for designing semis. The science fiction version of this story leads to everyone designing chips, the reality is going to be much narrower, but still means many more companies designing their own semis.
We think Qualcomm is expanding its “ASIC” business, helping hyperscalers in designing their own chips.
Fifty years ago the Street fell in love with diverse conglomerates like Gulf + Western. How different are the sprawling operations of the major Internet companies today?
MobiledgeX has reportedly been acquired by Google for a modest price. This demonstrates the challenges that small, innovative companies are starting to face when going up against the Giants.
Google’s new Aquila protocol is interesting because it begs the question what do they need it for? But it also harkens back to the days of packet switched networks, in an ironic sort of way.
Google has a new chip – the TiN – for networking. An interesting chip in its own right but we also see it as a sign that Google is creating tools that let any software coder design a chip. And if Google can do it, maybe everyone else will too. Someday.
The cloud service providers – AWS, GCP and Azure – have to support the software of all their customers, this complicates the case for them building their own chips.
MWC is once again the venue for the global persuasion campaign between competing visions of the O-RAN project. The big swing factor this time around is the growing presence of hyperscalers, notably Microsoft Azure.