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Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology Hardcover – October 4, 2022
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You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock market—runs on chips. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower. Now, America's edge is slipping, undermined by competitors in Taiwan, Korea, Europe, and, above all, China. Today, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more money each year importing chips than it spends importing oil, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity.
Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. become dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand. America has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap.
Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherScribner
- Publication dateOctober 4, 2022
- Dimensions6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101982172002
- ISBN-13978-1982172008
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This book is about the battle between the US and China to control the production of microchips, which are the new oil of the modern world.Popular highlight
China now spends more money each year importing chips than it spends on oil.1,110 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Chips from Taiwan provide 37 percent of the world’s new computing power each year. Two Korean companies produce 44 percent of the world’s memory chips. The Dutch company ASML builds 100 percent of the world’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, without which cutting-edge chips are simply impossible to make. OPEC’s 40 percent share of world oil production looks unimpressive by comparison.1,056 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
These tools are produced primarily by five companies, one Dutch, one Japanese, and three Californian, without which advanced chips are basically impossible to make. Then the chip is packaged and tested, often in Southeast Asia, before being sent to China for assembly into a phone or computer.1,021 Kindle readers highlighted this
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Editorial Reviews
Review
An Economist Best Book of the Year
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year
New York Times Bestseller
#1 on Fortune’s Spring CEO Survey of the Best Book They’ve Read in the Past Year
Winner 2023 PROSE Award for Outstanding Work by a Trade Publisher
Winner of the Arthur Ross Book Award
Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize
“Pulse quickening…Chip War makes a whale of a case: that the chip industry now determines both the structure of the global economy and the balance of geopolitical power. But the book is not a polemic. Rather, it’s a nonfiction thriller — equal parts “The China Syndrome” and “Mission Impossible”….If any book can make general audiences grok the silicon age — and finally recognize how it rivals the atomic age for drama and import — Chip War is it.”
—New York Times
“A riveting history of the semiconductor by Chris Miller, a historian at Tufts University…His volume could not be better timed…[features] vivid accounts [and] colorful characters.”
—Financial Times
“In Chip War, his elegant new book, Chris Miller of Tufts University shows how economic, geopolitical and technological forces shaped this essential industry… For those seeking to understand it better, Chip War is a fine place to start.”
—The Economist
“Fascinating…A historian by training, Miller walks the reader through decades of semiconductor history – a subject that comes to life thanks to [his] use of colorful anecdotes…Chip War makes clear that the battle for the multi-billion-dollar struggle for semiconductor supremacy in an increasingly-digitized world will only intensify in the years to come.”
—Forbes
“At once edifying and entertaining…Miller is a fluent narrator.”
—Foreign Affairs
“The most interesting book [I have] read all year.”
—Ryan Heath, writing in Politico’s “Global Insider”
“An insightful history… Well-researched and incisive, this is a noteworthy look at the intersection of technology, economics, and politics.”
—Publisher's Weekly
“An important wake-up call with solid historical context…America’s tech lead is shrinking, so the time has come to develop policies to ensure that the secret machinery of the digital era continues to operate smoothly…Miller’s implicit message to U.S. policymakers is to recognize the danger and act accordingly.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Miller uncovers the complex history of the microchip...Touching on U.S.-China relations, globalization, and the microchip industry, this insightful book is key to understanding the chip's power in shaping all aspects of society in the U.S. and the world at large."
—Booklist
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Scribner (October 4, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1982172002
- ISBN-13 : 978-1982172008
- Item Weight : 1.42 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.5 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Chris Miller teaches International History at Fletcher School at Tufts University. He is also Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a director at Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical consultancy. He is regularly quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, is featured on CNBC and NPR, and writes for publications like Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He is author of three books: Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia, The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy and We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his AB in history from Harvard University. For more information, see www.christophermiller.net
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I divide the book into the first roughly 2/3rds that looks at the history of the chip and the US role in its development. This role in fabrication and lithography was initially critical. But, as noted in the book, "America's technological lead in fabrication, lithography and other fields had dissipated because Washington convince itself the companies should compete but that governments should simply provide a level playing field." Pg. 298. Other governments, particularly China, did not share this view.
The last roughly 1/3rd of the book, largely beginning in Section VII, looks at the Challenge of China. The history is interesting, but if you're mainly interested in the Chinese competition and the effects of globalization, you may want to start here and see what the author has to say. TSMC, located in Taiwan, manufactures a large percentage of the more sophisticated chips used globally. ASML, located in the Netherlands, manufactures basically all of the lithography equipment necessary to manufacture high-end chips. Korea and Japan manufacture meaningful amounts of the chips necessary for cars, phones, etc., but the loss of TSMC in, for instance, an attempt by China to take over Taiwan would have a huge impact on our daily lives.
It's also not clear that the Netherlands intends to willingly relinquish its primacy in manufacturing essential lithography equipment. So, the book explores the effects of U.S. efforts to globalize the manufacture of chips. The U.S. has tried to maintain some primacy of the design of chips in Silicon Valley and the book looks at some of these efforts. Recently the U.S. government has recognized the shortcomings of globalization and is trying to bring chip manufacturing back to America.
The author makes a compelling case that computer chips are a critical technology. The history of the development of this technology and U.S. competition with China are the focus of this book. If these topics are of interest to you, I recommend the book highly.
Miller plows over old ground with his discussion of the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947 to the co-invention of the integrated circuit in 1956 by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Bob Noyce who would go on to lead Intel. He then goes on to discuss the “traitorous eight” who bail out of Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968 to for what was to become the Intel behemoth. They all wanted to get rich.
The government plays a major role in supporting the industry. The need to reduce the weight of the Minuteman missile sent the Pentagon scurrying to buy integrated circuits from Texas Instruments. As the Cold War heats up more and more integrated circuits find their way into military hardware. I remember in 1967 when I was working for Litton Industries, I first noticed integrated circuits appearing in airborne guidance and control systems.
Not mentioned in the book, Texas Instruments benefited from the Kennedy/Johnson White Houses sending defense contracts to Texas and New England. Silicon Valley in California was left out in the cold, but more than compensated by going after the lucrative civilian market.
To me most interesting was the role of Texas Instruments engineer Morris Chang who invented chip production processes. When he was passed over to be president of the company he moves to Taiwan and is instrumental in establishing Taiwan Semiconductor, now the largest manufacturer of chips in the world. Who knows what would have become of Texas Instruments if he became its president.
It is Morris Chang who makes Taiwan a semiconductor powerhouse and that is the reason why most of the world’s chips are made there today. Being located 100 miles from China is not exactly the safest place in world to manufacture this critical commodity. It is for this reason there now is a move to diversify production to other sources including the huge U.S. government subsidies now being funneled into the domestic chip industry.
Because both the Russians and the Chinese understand how critical computer chips are, they established their own industries. The Russians did what they do best which was to copy the west, but with the technology advancing so quickly that became a failing strategy. China, on the other hand, is making a huge investment in their own chip industry to wean their economy’s dependence on western made chips and equipment. In case of the latter there was a story today where Chinese spies obtained secrets from ASML, the Dutch monopoly supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment. Their machines are essential in the manufacture of chips and cost $100 million apiece.
The saddest part of the book is Miller recounting the decline of Intel. It seems the bean counters took over from the engineers. In 2008 Intel turned down Steve Jobs’ offer to them to make chips for the I-Phone ceding the market to Qualcomm. Thus, Intel was nowhere in communication chips, and it is being rapidly displaced in the server market by graphics processing chips being made by NVIDIA and AMD.
Miller’s book reads like a fast-paced business thriller. There are great anecdotes and reader will learn much about what will shape geopolitics this decade and beyond.
This book is a must-read for leaders especially in the government, offering crucial insights into the strategic importance of technology for national security and economic prosperity. 5 out of 5.
Top reviews from other countries
Concludo dicendo che se ne parla troppo poco in tv e online di questa tematica, e probabilmente tutto ruoterà ancora di più attorno ai chip nell'immediato futuro.