Key to this is the definition of semiconductor companies as those selling semiconductor products, rather than those fabbing them. Jerry Sander’s old rule that "Only real men have fabs" is no longer true. (Note the implicit irony.)

> In fact, it is more accurate to say that foundries are a result rather than a cause of this democratization

One could argue the opposite: it is the existence of the foundries* which have enabled the trend of the lengthening tail. If they did not exist, or were not so large and accessible, then the wide basket of non-manufacturing could not exist.

*Not just foundries, but the whole disaggregation of tools and services. EDA was once proprietary, but it is now extremely standardized down to a few convertible streams (and even exists in open-source and free forms). Packaging and test have been outsourced. Like the rise of cheap and contract 3D printing, incredible power for potentially low investment is now in the hand of the small-capital maker, as long as s/he does not want or need the latest, finest precision product. Except for those damn expensive masks. (And products like shuttle masks (which I was designing back in ’85) and direct write TRY to address those.)

There is the question of which is the tail, and which is the dog. If the infrastructure had not evolved to where it is, then there would not be the large foundries. But it is also the strategic vision of the foundry owners, to capture this share, which took them there. Each move that has been made to put tools into their customers’ hands (and channel workflow to them) has ratcheted up the foundries’ growth.