Semiconductors, Data Centers & AI

The market for Silicon Photonics and PICs is experiencing robust growth, driven by the surge in AI and datacom transceiver demand. IDTechEx forecasts that PIC technology will continue to dominate the high-performance transceiver market, further solidifying its position as a critical component in the modern technological landscape.

The grip of AI has continued to hold, with strong competition to develop more powerful AI models, active innovation in the semiconductor industry, and continued investment in the High-Performance Computing (HPC) data center market. Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic, particularly since generative AI's introduction with large language models (LLMs). In today's landscape, there is an ever-growing plethora of generative AI applications, not limited to generating images, videos, code, and data.

The electronics market is vast, with integrated circuits (ICs) being the third most traded product globally, presenting significant opportunities for sustainable electronics innovation. Action is currently being undertaken by many well-known electronics manufacturers to improve the sustainability and efficiency of their products. This includes water management strategies for semiconductor manufacturing, with over 500 billion liters of water used annually by the industry.

The battery industry is facing increasing pressure to develop new chemistries and materials to keep up with rising energy density and sustainability demands. The traditional materials discovery process is both expensive and time-consuming. Machine learning methods, specifically materials informatics, could provide a necessary avenue for accelerating the battery development process.

A free collection of insights from our industry experts, sharing some of the key technology innovation trends shaping the next decade.

By 2035, IDTechEx forecasts that the continued growth of artificial intelligence will result in over 2000 TWh of energy being consumed by data centers. The expected increase in CO2 emissions from powering these new data centers creates a dual challenge for both governments with net-zero targets and tech giants with internal carbon neutrality pledges alike: how can the unprecedented rise of AI be supported without causing major harm to the environment?

LiDAR has been touted as a solution to the automotive industry's endeavor to build safer and completely driverless cars, working towards a world with zero road fatalities and more accessible transport. So, after a decade of development, testing, trials, funding, partnerships, acquisitions, mergers, where is it? Why are there not more cars on the road running LiDAR?

The use of graphics processing units (GPUs) within high performance computing (HPC) has been increasingly adopted since the introduction of generative AI and large language models, as well as advanced memory, storage, networking, and cooling technologies. A major catalyst for growth has been the integration of AI into HPC workflows, where a convergence of the two unlocks opportunities in various fields by combining the powerful computational power of HPC with the intelligent data processing and "decision-making" of artificial intelligence.

The automotive industry has been using radar for two and a half decades. During that time, it has transformed from enabling luxury features on the most expensive cars, to being used ubiquitously for basic safety features in almost all new cars. This article goes through the three most important takeaways from the report. Starting with the huge growth that will be driven by side radars used in short-range applications.

Wednesday 29 January 2025 - State of the industry update on autonomous cars and factors driving demand for higher-performance radars; State-of-the-art technology from tier ones; Next-generation technologies from start-ups; Longer-term prospects for automotive radar