By Bolaji Ojo
About two years ago, the editors of the Ojo-Yoshida Report met in Lyon, France, with the founder of a small but influential research and consulting firm focused on the semiconductor industry.
Jean-Christophe Eloy had founded the Yole Group about two decades earlier and had watched the rise and fall of major players in the semiconductor industry. His company is focused especially on analyzing and assessing the technological innovations and products that chipmakers were bringing to a growing market.
But his message that day in Lyon was different. The technology of semiconductors is important, he notes. That is why Yole writes about the different products companies are rolling out, he said. There is a missing element, though, one that is even more critical as semiconductor usage spreads to all segments of the economy. Everyone is talking about innovations and products, but few are discussing the “Business of Semiconductors,” he added.
This is the genesis of the first annual Business of Semiconductor Summit (BOSS 2024) that the Ojo-Yoshida Report will be hosting from September 9-11, 2024.
Innovations rule the roost in the semiconductor world. But managing the cycles, opportunities, challenges and supply chain of the industry has become even more important as ICs gain importance through the economy.
Chip designs are important but only when they are produced at the right location, at the right price and accessible to potential buyers. With geopolitics changing the global economy landscape, who has access to which technology and can manufacture them will become even more important than the innovations themselves. The world must pay attention to issues like fab construction, financing, chip production, P&L and other fundamental business factors as much as it emphasizes distinctive technological innovations, Eloy added.
Many industry conferences focus on semiconductor technologies – memory, processors, MEMS, silicon carbide and other wideband gap chips, interconnects and even advanced packaging – but what about the structure that brings all these together in a functional whole,” Eloy asked. What about the “Business of Semiconductors?”
Intrigued
We were intrigued by the concept. Over the last several decades, both myself and Junko Yoshida, editor-in-chief of the Ojo-Yoshida Report, have attended numerous industry conferences where companies, analysts and other experts presented papers or discussed product innovation subjects. We continue to attend these events.
Many semiconductor companies also hold annual “Financial Analysts’ Day” or “Investors’ Day” during which they would discuss their market position and corporate financials.
Few events have focused on the actual “business of semiconductors,” though.
This is the genesis of the Business of Semiconductor Summit. The summit was initially planned as a 2-day event, but interest has grown across the industry, hence the decision to extend it by one extra day.
Click here for the program and schedule.
We began with a list of topics that covered everything from design all the way to manufacturing and the various Chips Acts promulgated by America, European Union, South Korea and Japan. We have also given presenters the opportunity to select their own topics. Power management was the choice of Infineon Technologies AG while Siemens AG plans to address “Packaging & Advanced Packaging: Innovations Meet Opportunities & Challenges.”
Microchip Technology, an enterprise that is as interested in automotive technologies as it is in supply chain issues, will address both subjects. CEO Ganesh Moorthy is going to answer questions on the “Supply Chain and the Super Cycle.”
These are just samples of the topics our partners want to focus on. The partners include Tenstorrent, Siemens, Infineon, Microchip, NXP, Synopsys, Hoffman Agency and Yole, a minority shareholder in the Ojo-Yoshida Report.
There will also be presentations from the academic world. As can be expected, artificial intelligence (AI) is a major focus of the entire industry. It will feature prominently in presentations and discussion panels.
The US Department of Commerce is weighing in with a deep dive into how the government came up with the Chips Act, the processes for determining awardees and what the country hopes to achieve in areas such as local manufacturing, innovation, research and development as well as workforce development.
An economy and industry in transition
Without a doubt, chips are set to be the greatest catalyst of change in human society over the next several decades. Every sector of the economy is being impacted. Manufacturers are adding automation via semiconductors to most products, from agricultural devices to aviation, all forms of transportation, healthcare, banking, financial services, home goods, consumer electronics of all shades and product management services. No economic sector will be left untouched.
In other words, semiconductors are no longer the preserve of geeks, design engineers, software vendors, manufacturing experts and equipment vendors. Design engineers used to rule the roost in the semiconductor world. Those days are long gone. Bigger and enormously influential economic and political players have stormed in and have willy-nilly assumed critical roles. Governments in countries like the US, the EU, Japan and Korea have added onerous and deterministic roles to their initial regulatory and oversight functions.
How design innovations and other technological intellectual property outputs are used, manufactured (where, by who and how), distributed, accessed and managed are now either controlled or instructed by political players. This is because semiconductors are no longer bit players in niche segments of the global economy. They are in everything we do.
Even scarier, semiconductors have only begun penetrating all our lives. We are in the first innings of how chips will be used in daily activities, a prospect government have decided they cannot leave to the industry alone to determine.
Fragments of the future
Within a few years, the size of the global semiconductor market will double, reaching $1 trillion by 2030 to 2032. It will become one of the biggest sections of most national economies, impacting policies, development programs and influencing relationships amongst nations and regions.
It is impossible to exaggerate the role semiconductors are going to play in business and governance in the immediate future. The impact on societies is already enormous, but we are only seeing the early effects of an invasive set of products on how we live and organize our economic, financial, industrial and manufacturing systems.
Obsservers say a new economic system is emerging globally, one that is digital, data-driven, fast-paced, innovative and packed with fresh opportunities for enterprises, individuals and nations. On the downside, it is likely to be disruptive and prone to security challenges.
The disruptions will give birth to new products, ideas and businesses. The insecurity of the systems will prove to be the biggest headache for everyone, governments, companies, individuals and institutions.
Semiconductors are at the core of this new economy, forming the building blocks of the systems governing emerging societies. But we only have fragmental views of what that future will look like. It will require great visionaries and efficient technical execution. In the end, though, the emerging society must answer these core questions: What do we really want semiconductors to do; how much power do we want to grant chipmakers; who should be able to access the technology; where will they be produced; and what roles will governments and regulatory institutions play as electronics invade all segments of the economy, defense and security spheres?
These are some of the issues that we will be discussing at the 2024 Business of Semiconductor Summit. Registration is free. Click here to register.
Bolaji Ojo is publisher and managing editor of the Ojo-Yoshida Report. He can be reached at [email protected].
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