Reviews

Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller

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timcooper99's review

informative medium-paced

3.25

Honestly, this book was quite dense and probably not something that I should have consumed on audiobook (as I tend to not absorb like 40-50% of every audiobook i "read" anyways). What I was able to get from this book was a very low-resolution understanding of the history of the chip industry, from its inception to some of the nerdy and rich men responsible for making the industry what it was: (jack kilby + Robert noyce, invetors of the microchip, William Shockley, creator of the semiconductor industry and arguably the creator of silicon valley, akio morita, founder of sony, and more). the book talks about how during the 60s the "chip war" was really just the tech front of cold war tensions between russia and the US. and I think there was a bit about how for a while soviet russia was just copying the us and spying on us chip companies to create their own technology. And then stuff about how japan was actually more successful and innovative in their own way (with examples of sony). and then there was a huge chunk about china towards the end of the book. and about huawei and about how it was actually quite innovative in its own right but unfortunately got stifled internationally due to the US's paranoia. and about how taiwan is now manufacturing the world's largest share of microchips.

really i didn't understand this book at all. I liked how reading it made me feel smart, but since I do not have a background in science a lot of the shit flew straight over my head and I ended up finding the book quite boring. Probably would not have finished the book if i had to read it physically (i'm slogging/struggling through in memoriam right now).