[snakke]

You're correct that specialised analog companies have not done well historically. However, we don't find ourselves in exactly the same position in computer architecture/performance as we've been decades before.

There's some (relatively) new ideas that now the performance of computers will be pushed more by dedicated silicon for a dedicated purpose, and tools. See for example there's plenty of room at the top [1], or Hennesy's talk at Google [2].

This of course does not mean that analog computers are suddenly viable, but it does mean that they could potentially fill a niche where they failed previously.

Anecdotally, when looking at jobs for hardware design by the likes of Infineon, STM, Cyient etc. there seems to be a relatively high ask for (senior) analog designers, and a new focus on mixed-technology chips. It might turn out to be a dud still, but it isn't the same situation as decades before.

1: https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aam9744 , or the IEEE article https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7863324

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azt8Nc-mtKM , around the 12:15 mark, but the entire video is relevant.