Chip war by Chris Miller

Chip war by Chris Miller – The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology – is a fascinating book. It covers the topic of chips amazingly. It is a blend of history with technology viewed from a global perspective. It focuses on various people who were important to the development of the new technology, but covers geographical important issues, and also political.

I think this is a highly engaging book that would appeal to a wider audience. There is a bit of everything, starting from the 1940s, talking about companies we all know and use, such as Intel and Sony. The story is chronological and shows how important the chips are today even though they were not always believed to be vital for national security for example. Miller talks about the people behind the technology and the business decisions they took, about governmental involvement and lack of it.

This is an important topic because it has wide implications. With 37% of chips made in Taiwan, it is clear that geopolitical issues are at the forefront of our future development. One of the most interesting things I read in the book was the move from CEOs with PhDs to CEOs with MBAs and how that affected the R&D departments, which led to the situation we are facing today. It was interesting to see how companies dismissed developments because they thought it will not be adopted, things we all use today, such as smart phones.

It was difficult to place this book in a category, but I ended up putting it in IT because that’s the core topic. But it is about people who shaped this industry and about politics and spies and governments and business and a lot of history. This is a book well worth reading.