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

Book Review: 4/5 Impact On Me (Book By Chris Miller)

Read more about the book here.

I rate the impact of Chip War 4 out of 5 on me. The book told a strong story and gave me useful information. Even though its not actionable for me now, it gave me solid broad information.

Why it felt timely

Ben Thompson at Stratechery often stresses the importance of USA owning a foundry and the global bottleneck of TSMC in Taiwan. Reading Chip War made that context concrete. It also clarified why a single company in the Netherlands, ASML, is so pivotal to the world.

Centralization and scale

Semiconductors have pushed the industry toward more and more centralization because of huge fixed costs. Whether ASML in the Netherlands or TSMC in Taiwan, scale has become a virtuous cycle: the more you do, the harder it is for others to catch up. The book lays out that dynamic clearly.