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Nah, there are lots of markets that have natural incentives against monopolies. For example, classic web hosting type things will probably never consolidate for
by saulrh 11y ago
Nah, there are lots of markets that have natural incentives against monopolies. For example, classic web hosting type things will probably never consolidate for a number of reasons ranging from the size and difficulty of the configuration space to being unable to retool when new technology comes along and new players enter.
Chip design and manufacture, however, I can easily believe converge toward a monopoly, mostly because research efforts compound like crazy.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoAnd NRE costs. Lets not forget that. More consolidation every node.
- saulrh 11y agoRight, chip fabrication pipelines. Your lithography setup costs $15B, but once you have it set up you can manufacture anything. Ouch.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoThat's true for fabs but I was talking HW development. Mainly, the EDA tools and the masks. It's why some companies can specialize in offering USB or whatever on certain nodes. It's just that expensive to develop something like that.