Author
Chip War
Chip War is a global history of the semiconductor and an argument about technological power. Chris Miller traces how transistors and integrated circuits moved from American laboratories and Cold War weapons programs into nearly every part of modern economic life. He follows the industry’s expansion through the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Europe, and China, showing how design, fabrication, manufacturing equipment, and intellectual property became distributed across a remarkably intricate supply chain. That specialization made chips cheaper and more capable, but it also concentrated indispensable expertise in a small number of firms and locations. Miller connects business decisions by companies such as Intel and TSMC with military strategy, industrial policy, globalization, and the intensifying rivalry between the United States and China. The result is both a history of technological development and a warning that access to computing power now shapes prosperity, national…