Chip companies are merging, signing $66 billion worth of deals this year alone in preparation for an explosion of demand from all walks of life as the next technological revolution takes hold: the Internet of Things.
As cars, crockery and even cows are controlled or monitored online, each will require a different kind of chip of ever-diminishing size, combining connectivity with processing, memory and battery power.
These require makers to pool resources and intellectual property to produce smaller, faster, cheaper chips, for a market that International Data Corp. said would grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020 from $650 billion last year.