Like other technology sectors, the Internet of Things ecosystem stands to benefit from the recent passage of the CHIPS Act, and it could not come at a better time for IoT, a market that was reaching new levels of maturity just when the semiconductor supply chain constraints started to become a major problem.
Mike Georgoff, chief product officer at Hologram, a Chicago-based company enabling IoT device roaming via mobile-like SIM cards, said the chip shortage and related challenges affected the IoT market, but also helped IoT companies become more focused.
“There’s been a sense of stagnancy across the board from the ongoing silicon shortage, which has definitely impacted IoT product creators' ability to meet demand in nearly every electronics vertical,” Georgoff told Fierce Electronics via email. “That being said, it has also forced all participants in the ecosystem to place their bets – to focus their limited materials, purchasing power, and strategic effort on the products and strategies they believe in most. We’re seeing what IoT applications have the strongest value propositions and long-term enduring demand. This type of ‘culling’ event is healthy in the long term, and will help the industry focus its capital and R&D investment in the places where it has the best ability to create impact for business and consumers alike.”
The passage of the CHIPS Act also will be a long-term plus for the IoT sector in a variety of ways. As others have noted, it will help grow the base of US-based companies and sites capable of producing high-density silicon wafers, which will help augment global supply capacity and continue to drive down the costs involved in all kinds of computing. It also should lead to increased innovation and competition at a time when chips have become increasingly ubiquitous in the IoT devices that are being placed in connected homes, manufacturing facilities, schools, and workplaces.
“This type of competition benefits businesses and consumers because it pushes all layers of the ecosystem to find newer, better, faster ways to meet their needs,” Georgoff said. “I can see abundant times ahead for IoT and connectivity and many other industries.”
He also sees an opportunity for expansion of environmentally-friendly efforts, like the “micromobility fleets” of e-bikes and scooters already becoming common on the urban landscape. Those fleets operate on IoT chips so chip supply increases could help to accelerate their expansion.“No one thing will solve the climate crisis, but every little action adds up to help,” Georgoff noted. “We believe that connecting the physical world to utilize energy more intelligently is a significant piece in the overall puzzle of reducing carbon emissions. And this goes beyond micromobility – from remotely managing agriculture equipment to monitoring utilities and energy consumption. The IoT chips that power e-bikes and scooters make them smarter and easier to optimize for fleet managers tracking inefficiencies remotely and can improve our overall environmental impact leading to less fuel consumption.”
Opportunities in other IoT segments, such as “the Internet of Medical Things” (IoMT) also could open up with the help of funding from the CHIPS Act, he said, adding “The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is saving lives today by enabling connected medical devices to track and report vital health data from the homes of people with chronic illnesses to their care teams.”
Micromobility fleets, IoMT, and other aspects of IoT rely on the cellular IoT connectivity flexibility that Hologram is helping to enable, so the start-up, which collected its Series B funding a year ago, has a lot of reasons to celebrate the CHIPS Act. “Cellular innovations not only power our cell phones, but each generation of wireless technology makes machinery like farming equipment smarter, enables more AI and machine learning, and increases our capabilities overall to connect the world,” Georgoff said.