Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments made a decade-long bet on 300mm wafer manufacturing when competitors hesitated, investing $5-7 billion annually in fab capacity. The payoff: producing 2.5x more chips per wafer than rivals still using 200mm, with only marginally higher costs. This is economies of scale as evolutionary advantage—once you achieve the capital threshold, your cost structure becomes nearly impossible to replicate. TI generated $15.6 billion revenue in 2024 with 78% from analog chips, maintaining 68% gross margins that competitors can't match.

The strategy mirrors K-selection in stable environments: prioritize efficiency over rapid growth, invest in long-term competitive moats, dominate through resource optimization. Industrial and automotive markets—70% of revenue—have 6-18 month design cycles but 10-20 year product lifecycles. Once TI's analog chip is embedded in factory automation or a vehicle ECU, it stays for decades. This creates installed base inertia that compounds annually. The company doesn't chase the fastest-growing markets; it cultivates relationships that generate predictable returns across business cycles.

But K-selection carries risk when environments shift suddenly. TI's analog revenue declined for eight consecutive quarters before recovering in 2024—embedded processing fell 18% as digital alternatives emerged. The biological lesson: specialists in stable niches thrive until the niche destabilizes. TI's manufacturing advantage only matters if customers need analog chips. The company's 2025 guidance suggests industrial markets haven't shown cyclical recovery, even as automotive grows. When your strategy is optimized for stability, rapid environmental change tests whether your adaptations transfer.