Chip War
The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Graybill
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Written by:
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Chris Miller
About this listen
One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023
The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in fierce competition is “pulse quickening…a nonfiction thriller” (The New York Times).
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—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, 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 US became 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. Until recently, China had been catching up, aligning its chip-building ambitions with military modernization.
Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War is “an essential and engrossing landmark study" (London Times).
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What listeners say about Chip War
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-02-27
The world runs on chips
Very interesting history and current state of high-tech sector in world politics and business. Changed my view on the Pacific power struggle. The balance of power is teetering based on who produces what and where. The book gave some insight into how complex this technology is, which is mind-boggling!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ray Payette
- 2023-06-08
Very Informative
It was very informative, and confirmed much of what many of us all suspected, and why the US and the West are such staunch backers of Taiwan,
I do think he could have gotten the same message across in an hour or two less.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Alexander
- 2023-04-28
A detailed history of a critical good
This is a great thorough history of the silicon world to let us see where the chips in everything in our lives started and some ideas on where it is going
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- Peter
- 2024-04-21
An interesting and complex conundrum
Great and interesting listen that sheds light on a serious and complex problem that isn’t easy to resolve
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-06-03
Great overall storytelling
The book captures the essence of making/supplying of a critical products, and the relationships and geopolitical implications of all major players.
The reader is kind of dry. Would be better if performed by another person.
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- Mark
- 2023-06-21
Story great. Well laid out. Narration mediocre.
I found the story well laid out and informative, without going too deep. The narration was mediocre. Inflection was wonky at times and pronunciation off.
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- russ brocklehurst
- 2023-09-29
Informative well worth the read
Detail well research well told provides insight in technologies of the age
Also highlight some tensions in the world
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- Chillyfinger
- 2022-11-30
Gaps and inaccuracies
Apple's origin story is ignored. Apple was in the personal computer market years before IBM entered. There were many others, such as Wang and Radio Shack. Motorola is left out of the story entirely. For years, the Intel 8088 chip (1979).was used in personal computers. The author's story of Intel's creation of the 8088 in relation to IBM's (third) attempt at a personal computer is complete fiction.
There was a clear path of innovation that went from hand-held calculators (such as the fantastic HP) to full-fledged computers. The chipset from HP's smart terminals lead directly to the first Apple. The PC itself was at two years behind the practical business computer from Radio Shack, lacking the hard drive essential for business applications.
The first full-fledged (and affordable) personal computer I used was the Wang 2200 in the mid-1970s.
Given all these mistakes and omissions, I am left to take the rest of the story with a pinch of salt. I am particularly skeptical of the author's assumptions about the economic and strategic position of China. China's foreign policy is far more subtle than a mirror image of America's attempt to rule the world. One might as well argue that China and the US are trapped in a tangle of interdependency, making war a modern equivalent of "MAD" - Mutual Assured Destruction. This is certainly the current situation, but it is not touched upon in the author's alarmist analysis of the near future.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Vitalii
- 2022-11-30
Transistor, transistor, transistor.
Quite boring overall and a lot of repetitive phrases along the paragraphs. Feels more like a research paper than a book.
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-03-25
a misleading title
The title and subtitle of this book led me to expect it to be primarily about the future global conflicts that would likely be fought over semiconductors. While it did contain some of this, the majority of the book was just a history of semiconductors. I think the publisher opted for something that sounded sexier than the subject matter of the book actually was. so if you consider this book just know that it is primarily history, not geopolitics.
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