The term “hyperconvergence” could sound slightly alarming to unfamiliar ears. Are our technologies preparing to band together and take over the world? Luckily, the future isn’t so grim. Increasing connectedness and intelligence actually presents significant opportunities for companies spanning many different industries.

So what exactly is hyperconvergence and how will it affect the business world? Simply put, it is the phenomenon of companies across all verticals evolving to be tech-first and deploying many of the same solutions — albeit for different industry applications. It’s one of the key features of the new economy.

It isn’t a new concept either, as hyperconvergence has been happening all around us for many years now. Previously, there was a clear delineation between industries: Automotive companies designed and assembled cars, telecommunications companies built and operated infrastructure, and semiconductor companies manufactured chips to support the functions of electronic devices. Gradually, though, these roles have overlapped.

An Increasingly Holistic Approach

Today, companies across every vertical are making new investments in technology. If a car company such as Ford wants to keep growing in the automotive space, it can’t simply build more cars. Instead, it needs to develop ways of building services that shift the entire idea of what a car is. Competing with ride-sharing disruptors like Uber and offering solutions to pressing issues such as increasing city traffic is a must.

Advances in digital tools such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, and 5G have created opportunities for integrated products and experiences that never existed before. To see this in action, consider Otis Elevator Company: It started by building and maintaining elevators, of course, but it now harnesses data’s ever increasing capabilities to create intelligent systems surrounding the elevator products it offers. What was once a relatively simple, limited product — elevators — is now highly integrated with other digital experiences.

The unlikely hero of this change, however, is the semiconductor industry. As hyperconvergence takes hold, businesses everywhere will turn to semiconductors — which function as technological linchpins — to make tech-driven changes happen.

What Does Hyperconvergence Mean for the Semiconductor Industry?

The semiconductor industry is inherently tied to the hyperconvergence trend. No matter what kind of product we’re talking about, the chip is generally the precursor.

And as the move toward convergence continues, other industries will be increasingly tied to the growth of the semiconductor industry itself. AI provides a great example: The market for AI-related semiconductors is expected to grow into a $30 billion space by 2022, and giants such as Google and Amazon are already developing custom chips for AI-based projects.

These advancements are clearly a harbinger for technology’s future. Semiconductor companies are poised to take advantage if they can think ahead and invest early in the next generation of chips and surrounding systems.

How Can Semiconductor Companies Own the Hyperconvergence Trend?

Hyperconvergence expands the scope of products, turning them from limited objects with particular use cases to integrated, intelligent systems. It also combines digital tools and data to create seamless, individualized experiences. This is what semiconductor companies should consider during their research and development efforts.

In the next wave of development, semiconductor companies will have the opportunity to not only provide basic underlying solutions, but also the full systems and intelligence above it. They can look far into the future to predict different use cases across verticals, then develop increasingly superior chips for each. When solutions appear in the market, they’ll be ready to take advantage.

Today, the challenge for semiconductor companies is to bring cross-industry expertise together and think ahead of the companies they work with. This is where Wipro can help. Over the years, we’ve worked across industries and have developed solutions in line with how technology companies advance. To find out more, reach out to our team to see how you can become a key player in the shift toward hyperconvergence.