The Business of the Semiconductor Business, Part One: What Happened?

By SemiWiki

June 27, 2016

This is the first of an occasional series of articles on the semiconductor industry. Many column inches have covered industry consolidation and in this first article, I aim to explain how the industry reached this point. Later articles will cover subjects including China, joint ventures, emerging players like Brazil and Vietnam, monopolies, M&A, national security/national development, customer concentration, verticalisation/disintermediation, ecosystem venturing, etc. The timing of these will be erratic out of practical necessity and the order of themes…in no particular order.

“If you want to turn a big pile of money into a small pile of money, start an airline – or a semiconductor company” - Anon

Semiconductors are examples of practical magic. They have enabled the transformation of existing industries and the creation of new ones, disrupting lives for both better and worse. The semiconductor industry has enabled the creation of an incredible amount of value, but has a demonstrably poor track record when it comes to capturing much of that value.

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