"As of March 2005, 10 million homes around the world were watching HDTV programming on a high-definition TV set. By the end of 2005, the worldwide total of these HDTV service households is projected to reach 15.5 million, reports In-Stat. The rate of growth of HDTV households will continue to be strong over the next several years, and by 2009, HDTV households worldwide are forecasted to reach 52 million, according to the high-tech market research firm. HDTV services are widely available in only five countries: Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States, and South Korea. There are currently 4 million HDTV households in the US, up from 1.6 million in March 2004."
Few technology sectors sit as close to the center of gravity in today's artificial intelligence (AI) economy as semiconductor manufacturing. Every AI chip that trains a frontier model, every GPU that powers a data center inference workload, and every power management IC that keeps hyperscaler facilities running traces its origins back to the global Foundry ecosystem. IDC's latest market study throws that reality into sharp relief, projecting that the broadly defined Foundry 2.0 market will surpass $360 billion in 2026, a 17 percent year-over-year gain that would have seemed optimistic even two years ago. For anyone advising boards or investment committees on technology and AI infrastructure strategy, this growth trajectory demands careful consideration. Foundry 2.0 Market Development The umbrella term covers four distinct verticals: pure-play foundry, non-memory integrated device manufacturer (IDM) production, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT), and photomask fab...