Software Sells Hardware: The Big-Budget Dilemma Haunting Most Silicon Vendors
Everyone knows that to sell semiconductors, you need software that actually shows off what those chips can do. It’d be like trying to sell a sports car without any gas for the test drive – how’s the buyer supposed to know how smoothly she runs? Not by taking your word for it, that’s for sure.
Never has this been truer than in the world of AI where specialty chips are being developed to run AI workloads. Tech giants like Nvidia know the importance of software built to match. What’s more, they have DEEP pockets – they understand the paradigm, and they are buying up software companies left and right, to build AI applications and toolkits to help people build killer AI apps in the cloud; apps which in turn need lots of AI computing power so they can sell even more AI chips for AI data centers. Genius.
The Catch-22 Facing Semiconductor Firms
Valued at 53.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, the AI chips market is set to grow by over 30 percent in 2024, jumping to more than 71 billion U.S. dollars, with projections going as high as 92 billion USD by 2025. That means a whole lot more up-and-coming semiconductor companies that don’t have the luxury of swinging around such a fat purse.
Every penny they spend on software impacts the bottom line. But while it is hard to justify creating applications, they certainly see the merit of developing their own Zeros and Ones. They know the immense potential AI unlocks but are bound by budget constraints that make software investments a risky move.
Simply put, you need software to sell hardware
Unlike giants like Nvidia, emerging semiconductor companies don’t have the resources to build out intricate software ecosystems that make their chips indispensable. Yet, they know that without these software layers to showcase the full capabilities of their chips, their hardware risks being sidelined or ignored instead of becoming a “must-have building block.” Whoever makes it easiest for users to “grasp” what their chips are capable of, will win the marketing war.
This is the dilemma. Without strategic investment in software, even the most advanced hardware may struggle to demonstrate its true value, particularly in AI workloads. Customers today expect AI chips that come with optimized, compatible software, and ecosystems that can accelerate their own development cycles. The question facing newer players in the silicon industry, then, is this: How do they get there without breaking the bank? Is it even possible?
Dilemma Resolution: Strategic Partnerships with Established Edge AI Companies and Embedded Software Experts
One route is partnering with specialized software development firms that know how to bridge hardware and software needs. These companies have deep experience in embedded software, Wi-Fi, IoT, and TinyML, giving them the expertise to help rising silicon firms develop and integrate the necessary AI-compatible software layers, saving the silicon vendors the upfront costs and risk of hiring and managing in-house software teams.
Such partnerships provide a cost-effective way for silicon firms to add the software polish their hardware products need, without the financial and managerial drain of trying to do it all themselves. For newish semiconductor companies navigating this tough terrain, the challenge is in recognizing that software development is no longer a secondary consideration.
It’s a competitive imperative. Working with the right embedded systems partner can mean the difference between a chip that’s simply functional and one that becomes the backbone of groundbreaking AI applications. In an industry where every dollar counts, strategic partnerships could be the lifeline these competing companies need to level the playing field—and thrive.
So, What Do These Partnerships Look Like IRL?
Well, by collaborating with embedded software experts, semiconductor firms get access to AI enabled software hubs like ModelNova which unleashes others to build even more applications, and finally integrated products that will make use of the exact microchips you’re trying to sell/showcase. Hey, if NVIDIA’s business model ain’t broke, then don’t fix it!
These types of partnerships are basically a mutually beneficial relationship that can take many forms and can be initiated by either party. Either partner (software vs hardware) may be doing it to showcase their work, or to assist an early adopter (big fish which the silicon company is courting). What’s evident is that even the consumers benefit significantly by way of lower production costs which translate to lower product prices.
Here are some use cases and examples of how silicon microchip vendors benefit from strategically partnering with established Edge AI companies like embedUR and vice versa.
I) End–Consumer Driven
Let’s say a convenience store chain, (call it 70-Eleventy) is having issues with skimmers and fraudsters at the ATMs, registers or other payment terminals. They want to use computer vision backed analysis of image data and videos (facial expressions, activity patterns, suspicious behaviour) at the ATMs and checkouts to tag potentially fraudulent activities.
So 70-Eleventy starts that conversation with the payment platform company asking them, “Hey, Money Guys, your tech is getting smoked. Are you gonna solve this problem for us, or do we look elsewhere?”
That leads the Money Guys to a microchip vendor (say St Microcom Chippers) who has a chip that they think could do what 70-Eleventy wants. But now they need help to embed software (computer vision data analysis) that will run on these microchips so they can function as intended. So St Microm approaches us and now the three of us (embedUR, Money Guys, St Microm) all collaborate to build what 70-Eleventy wants. And yes, it will be spectacular.
II) Vendor Driven
Another example (undoubtedly the most common) is where the vendor or microchip company themselves want to showcase their technology.
So the vendors say, “Hey, we just built this here microchip. We don’t exactly know what it can do, but we know it will be amazing, and everybody needs to know this as well. So, let’s create at least one awesome showcase so that we can start showing people how groundbreaking our tech is!”
Once the microchip vendors partner with the right embedded software company (AKA embedUR), their vision comes to life in a fraction of the time and cost it would take to build software from scratch. The best part is that you don’t even need to have a specific customer in mind for these types of showcases and demos – instead, tech companies that like your showcase and innovation will approach you with their own unique ideas for application!
Here’s another blatantly obvious example of a vendor driven partnership that we can all thank for facilitating cheaper phones:
Typically, phone manufacturers and vendors want to reach as wide a customer base as possible with their innovations. So what do they do? Do they create their own applications on top of already having built a decent phone? No, that wouldn’t make any economical or business sense (unless you’re a filthy rich monopolist like Apple).
The vendors simply install Android on their phone which grants them instant access to an enormous market of users just because it already runs the apps that everybody wants! Plus, they achieve this at a fraction of the time and cost it would take to develop software inhouse, bringing phone costs down. But you already knew this when you first Googled ‘Android Vs iPhone prices’, didn’t you?
All in all, it’s a symbiotic, harmonic relationship where both hardware companies and software experts get to showcase and complement each other’s innovations. The real question now is, which embedded expert will you choose to showcase your hardware in all its living glory?
Why Choose embedUR as a Partner?
We make your chips look good.
At embedUR, we understand the difficult situation silicon players are in. No one wants to be sidelined just because they can’t throw resources at software like Nvidia does.
So, while you may not have the luxury of endless budgets, a smart, agile strategy (like partnerships with embedded software pros) could not only level the playing field but also help you punch above your weight in the Edge AI space. It’s all about showcasing that hardware potential with the right software layers—without drowning in costs.
This is referred to as the build, buy or rent dilemma. By working with us, silicon vendors can take advantage of our expertise and resources using our Edge AI development hub: ModelNova. Adding your platform to this hub, with the software to drive it, puts your CHIP in front of a growing community of developers who are using ModelNova to accelerate development and experiment with proof of concepts faster than ever before.
This platform helps engineers streamline Edge AI product development, enabling rapid prototyping and deployment of intelligent applications on edge devices, in a fraction of the time it used to take to develop Edge AI solutions from scratch!
ModelNova – The Best Edge AI Resource Hub
ModelNova addresses a significant challenge faced by engineers and developers: the complexity of selecting, creating, training, porting and optimizing AI models for different hardware platforms, especially low-power IoT devices.
This is a critical process, upon which the success of a project largely depends. It requires extensive expertise in low-level firmware, plus a deep understanding of the silicon they are trying to optimize for, which is a rare skill set. ModelNova overcomes the main obstacles that prevent good ideas from progressing into reality. Product developers and AI researchers can more easily experiment with their solution concepts.
By partnering with embedUR, rising silicon vendors get to add their hardware to the Edge AI resource hub, inheriting some of these pre-trained models, and could even operate a white-label version of the platform, for showcasing its models running on your chip without competing brands.
This is far more than your run-of-the-mill AI model zoo. These curated models are integrated and ready-to-go on small, embedded devices; perfect for prototyping intelligent edge products. Let us port all of those models to your hardware as well.
ModelNova also provides datasets, methodologies, and blueprints (detailed road maps for aiding in the development of real-life use cases) designed to help companies design and build Edge AI applications with relative ease compared to starting from scratch.
Through such strategic partnerships, silicon players get the right combination of hardware, framework, model zoos and data sets. Depending on what your chip was designed to do, this is more than an optimal solution. But obviously, you can’t get found if you don’t have software that makes your microchips work outside of the lab. That’s what it’s all about – enabling other people to build solutions on your platform.
Let us do the low level work so you can unleash access to this whole market of developers who are looking for the perfect AI hardware for their ground-breaking AI idea to run on. We invite you to explore ModelNova, and when you’re ready to show the world what your tech can do, reach out to embedUR, and talk to us, to edge ahead of the competition.
