Will America lose its grip over the Microchips?

Since the emergence of COVID-19 during the first months of 2020, the phrase “supply chain” became a catalyst of terror for America’s consumers, often demonstrated by panicked shoppers coming to blows over the last bottle of bleach, can of soup, or—worst of the worst—roll of toilet paper.

In the context of triggering potential doom, chips were silently outnumbered by the growing scarcity of another finite resource.

The integrated circuit, not the potato “semiconductor” kind: small pieces of silicon with countless transistors carved in them.

“Last year, the chip industry produced more transistors than the combined quantity of all goods produced by all other companies, in all other industries, in all human history,” Chris Miller is the author of Chip War: Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. “Nothing else comes close.”

This unimaginable influence—and also, unimaginable risk—certainly puts a toilet paper shortage into perspective.

Miller, associate professor of international history at Tufts University’s Fletcher School at Tufts University looks at the computer chip from a geopolitical perspective. This helps to support the original argument. “semiconductors have defined the world we live in, determining the shape of international politics, the structure of the world economy, and the balance of military power.”

Speaking Miller claims that his work is proof of Miller’s argument. “no item has had a more decisive role on international politics” The transistor has been in existence since 1947, when it was invented. According to his definition of a transistor, “a tiny electric ‘switch’ that turns on (creating a 1) or off (0), producing the 1s and 0s that undergird all digital computing,” This hypothesis is hard to refute.

Chip War is a fascinatingly detailed breakdown of this very resource—a resource on which the world depends. The book’s subject matter may seem intimidating to anyone not familiar with computing. Miller’s work is an educational overview that covers even the most complicated elements of this ever-growing technology.

Miller weaves together multiple historical timelines and provides insight into the billion-dollar international dramas around the science of semiconductors.

Miller guides us through a beginners’ guide to Silicon Valley and its origins.