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The Big Score: The Billion Dollar Story of Silicon Valley
An investigative, behind-the-scenes report on the semiconductor/computer industry traces the history of Silicon Valley and the electronics industry, and the entrepreneurs, innovations, industrial espionage, drug scene, and other realities of Silicon Valley
442 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
135 people are currently reading
1524 people want to read
About the author
Michael S. Malone
45 books63 followersMichael S. Malone is a journalist and author who has been nominated for the Pulitzer price twice for his investigative journalism contributions. He has a regular column Silicon Dreams in Forbes (previosuly Silicon Insider for ABC)
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 19, 2021
Malone met my expectations precisely with The Big Score, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the San Francisco South Bay, AKA "Silicon Valley", and how it came to be.
As a book dedicated to covering the seminal years and subsequent coming-of-age story of Silicon Valley, The Big Score offers a nuanced survey, analysis, and critique of every technological, social, and economic instigator that contributed to the inception of the technological innovation microcosm littered with figurative gold-mines waiting to be discovered. All the trials and tribulations, booms and busts, big scores and scandals, tycoons and failed ventures of the fledgling industries surround the integrated circuit are cataloged here, from the early 1950s to mid 1980s (when this book was published).
Having grown up in the South Bay during the inception of the Valley, Malone is well-posed to tell this story. His perspective is that of an observer who came of age in the wake of the coming of age of the Valley, and so he delivers a unique and personal voice to the narrative that makes the reader feel like they were there too. Often, I felt I could imagine the extraordinary pace at which the Valley was changing, one chapter to the next, as the industry changed from inventing the technologies and kick-starting the markets of electrical instruments, transistors, ICs, microprocessors, PCs, and software. I felt that Malone could write effortlessly and comprehensively about everything from the Valley's core entrepreneurs and business executives that helped both establish and rescue a inordinate number of fabled companies in the valley, to the stormy impact such relentless pursuit of the big score had on the sociological and psychological characteristics of inhabitants of the valley.
I particularly enjoyed how Malone alternated stories about companies with stories about the individuals that created them. For a majority of the book (the mid 80%), he would tell a riveting tale about the founding of some infamous company that single-handedly created a multi-billion dollar industry in one chapter, and follow it up with another presenting an equally entertaining expose about the individual founders (or founder) of the company that deserved equal respect as an industry pioneer. I appreciated that the biographic interludes sometimes even covered the less dominant or charismatic brains and personalities that were, as history remembers them, just the supporting actors in such a technologically revolutionary time period. For me, this literary technique shed light on the industry in a very human way, and reiterated a core value of mine: Companies are virtual entities, comprising 10s, 100s, or 1000s of physical entities, humans. To have the story of the inception of Silicon Valley with a unwavering focus on the companies, their novel technological contributions, and the prescient innovators that founded them made the narrative all the more engaging.
At it’s essence, The Big Score is both an expository historical account and engaging narrative that is perhaps the best book I've read in the niche of Silicon Valley biographies. Admittedly, I haven't read many, and I assume there are only a dozen or so books that make such an attempt; Regardless, my guess would be that you'd be better off reading this book, Malone's biographical account of the valley he grew up in, a native observer cataloging the sheer rapidity in which the seemingly innocent Santa Clara valley constantly begot technological revolutions begot emerging markets begot multi-billion dollar industries, multiple times each decade. Always, in almost lock step, the communities and physical landscape of the valley changed as well— and who better to tell it than a technically savvy writer who lived through it all!
In my opinion, The Big Score has aged well, and if there were ever a time to revisit such a telling of the foundations of Silicon Valley, in light of the continued astronomical progress humanity continues to make in the hardware and software industries, it would be now. I look forward to reading the next attempt someone makes at continuing the story the next 35 years, picking up where Malone left off: starting from 1985 and ending in 2020! Who knows, maybe Michael S. Malone himself will be inspired to do so— it would be fitting for a 40yr anniversary of this historic book. However, one can only wonder if, that because the rate of technological innovation has kept pace with Moore’s law ever since this book was published, a book with similar breadth and depth as this one could ever come to fruition lest its spine break under the weight of the pages within.
As a book dedicated to covering the seminal years and subsequent coming-of-age story of Silicon Valley, The Big Score offers a nuanced survey, analysis, and critique of every technological, social, and economic instigator that contributed to the inception of the technological innovation microcosm littered with figurative gold-mines waiting to be discovered. All the trials and tribulations, booms and busts, big scores and scandals, tycoons and failed ventures of the fledgling industries surround the integrated circuit are cataloged here, from the early 1950s to mid 1980s (when this book was published).
Having grown up in the South Bay during the inception of the Valley, Malone is well-posed to tell this story. His perspective is that of an observer who came of age in the wake of the coming of age of the Valley, and so he delivers a unique and personal voice to the narrative that makes the reader feel like they were there too. Often, I felt I could imagine the extraordinary pace at which the Valley was changing, one chapter to the next, as the industry changed from inventing the technologies and kick-starting the markets of electrical instruments, transistors, ICs, microprocessors, PCs, and software. I felt that Malone could write effortlessly and comprehensively about everything from the Valley's core entrepreneurs and business executives that helped both establish and rescue a inordinate number of fabled companies in the valley, to the stormy impact such relentless pursuit of the big score had on the sociological and psychological characteristics of inhabitants of the valley.
I particularly enjoyed how Malone alternated stories about companies with stories about the individuals that created them. For a majority of the book (the mid 80%), he would tell a riveting tale about the founding of some infamous company that single-handedly created a multi-billion dollar industry in one chapter, and follow it up with another presenting an equally entertaining expose about the individual founders (or founder) of the company that deserved equal respect as an industry pioneer. I appreciated that the biographic interludes sometimes even covered the less dominant or charismatic brains and personalities that were, as history remembers them, just the supporting actors in such a technologically revolutionary time period. For me, this literary technique shed light on the industry in a very human way, and reiterated a core value of mine: Companies are virtual entities, comprising 10s, 100s, or 1000s of physical entities, humans. To have the story of the inception of Silicon Valley with a unwavering focus on the companies, their novel technological contributions, and the prescient innovators that founded them made the narrative all the more engaging.
At it’s essence, The Big Score is both an expository historical account and engaging narrative that is perhaps the best book I've read in the niche of Silicon Valley biographies. Admittedly, I haven't read many, and I assume there are only a dozen or so books that make such an attempt; Regardless, my guess would be that you'd be better off reading this book, Malone's biographical account of the valley he grew up in, a native observer cataloging the sheer rapidity in which the seemingly innocent Santa Clara valley constantly begot technological revolutions begot emerging markets begot multi-billion dollar industries, multiple times each decade. Always, in almost lock step, the communities and physical landscape of the valley changed as well— and who better to tell it than a technically savvy writer who lived through it all!
In my opinion, The Big Score has aged well, and if there were ever a time to revisit such a telling of the foundations of Silicon Valley, in light of the continued astronomical progress humanity continues to make in the hardware and software industries, it would be now. I look forward to reading the next attempt someone makes at continuing the story the next 35 years, picking up where Malone left off: starting from 1985 and ending in 2020! Who knows, maybe Michael S. Malone himself will be inspired to do so— it would be fitting for a 40yr anniversary of this historic book. However, one can only wonder if, that because the rate of technological innovation has kept pace with Moore’s law ever since this book was published, a book with similar breadth and depth as this one could ever come to fruition lest its spine break under the weight of the pages within.
May 18, 2022
First half of this was really good -- personal stories and comparing/contrasting some former giants of Silicon Valley back when it made silicon -- Intel, National Semiconductor, etc. Written by a journalist who was reporting at the time, so this was a contemporary account rather than a retrospective; makes it interesting since he didn't know at the time where stories would lead. Interesting seeing names who would end up doing fairly different things (VC, etc.), as well as struggles which ultimately became irrelevant. The story of HP (and knowing how the HP/Compaq merger, and Carly Fiorina, later destroyed the firm) was particularly sad. Seeing repeated efforts by semiconductor companies to go into consumer products and fashion was pretty crazy, too; amazing that Apple seems to have done this in reverse now.
March 2, 2024
Silicon Valley has become synonymous with tech giants, so it's amazing to read a "history of Silicon Valley" from 1985 which predates almost all of these companies. A fun read that inspires and reframes how we think about technology. I'm keen to get my hands on some electronics toolkits and finally understand what transistors are.
August 7, 2021
Shocked that Shockley shook the Valley
August 17, 2021
Very fun read, a collection of stories on many different characters and companies created in the 1980s. The book does fall into reception here and there, it could have used some editing
February 6, 2025
The Big Score : The Billion Dollar Story of Silicon Valley (1985) by Michael Malone is an interesting history book that covers the first sixty years of Silicon Valley. Malone was a journalist who covered Silicon Valley for decades.
The book starts in the 1930s with the founding of Hewlett-Packard and Varian. The story of just how far back the electronics industry goes in The Bay Area is really interesting. The valley was an engineering hub for electronics and aerospace from around that era. Hewlett-Packard was apparently a great place to work and they didn’t overwork their employees.
William Shockley was one of the co-discovers of the transistor at Bell Labs. He left Bell Labs to travel back to where he grew up around Palo Alto and formed his own lab. He hired Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and others. Moore, Noyce and six others left Shockley as the ‘treacherous eight’. They founded Fairchild Semiconductor. Fairchild Semiconductor in turn had Moore and Noyce leave to form Intel. Ironically Intel would have a policy of suing anyone who worked for them and then started another company. Jerry Sanders also worked at Fairchild and left to found AMD.
The book has a lot on the 1970s when the first microprocessors went on sale. There is also a chapter about Gene Amdahl and his company. The book combines histories of the companies with profiles of various founders. IBM appears repeatedly throughout the book with discussions of what they did around the company and also in Silicon Valley.
There is no mention of Xerox Park which is somewhat surprising. Nor is there a mention of Doug Engelbart.
Towards the end of the book Malone writes about Atari and Apple. This is a highly entertaining section with the portrait of Atari being interesting. Computer games are likened to Hula Hoops in being something that may just be a fad. Steve Jobs is described as someone who is a great huckster. But he is also described as someone who is extremely capable of making a good design and driving people. There is only a tiny mention of Microsoft. Commodore gets a short mention.
Malone also has an interesting chapter on the lives of factory workers in the valley. He writes about how tough it is for them. He also writes about the drug abuse that occurs in the factories. He also writes about the crime in Silicon Valley with secrets and parts being stolen and resold.
The book also has a chapter on how the damage that the Valley does to many people. Malone writes about people who move across the country and work too hard. Marriages collapse and Malone writes that many people are lost.
The Big Score is a really good book for anyone interested the history of Silicon Valley. The book is forty years old this year and covers the previous forty years of Silicon Valley’s history fairly well. It is a bit of a hard read though. There are so many characters that come and go.
The book starts in the 1930s with the founding of Hewlett-Packard and Varian. The story of just how far back the electronics industry goes in The Bay Area is really interesting. The valley was an engineering hub for electronics and aerospace from around that era. Hewlett-Packard was apparently a great place to work and they didn’t overwork their employees.
William Shockley was one of the co-discovers of the transistor at Bell Labs. He left Bell Labs to travel back to where he grew up around Palo Alto and formed his own lab. He hired Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and others. Moore, Noyce and six others left Shockley as the ‘treacherous eight’. They founded Fairchild Semiconductor. Fairchild Semiconductor in turn had Moore and Noyce leave to form Intel. Ironically Intel would have a policy of suing anyone who worked for them and then started another company. Jerry Sanders also worked at Fairchild and left to found AMD.
The book has a lot on the 1970s when the first microprocessors went on sale. There is also a chapter about Gene Amdahl and his company. The book combines histories of the companies with profiles of various founders. IBM appears repeatedly throughout the book with discussions of what they did around the company and also in Silicon Valley.
There is no mention of Xerox Park which is somewhat surprising. Nor is there a mention of Doug Engelbart.
Towards the end of the book Malone writes about Atari and Apple. This is a highly entertaining section with the portrait of Atari being interesting. Computer games are likened to Hula Hoops in being something that may just be a fad. Steve Jobs is described as someone who is a great huckster. But he is also described as someone who is extremely capable of making a good design and driving people. There is only a tiny mention of Microsoft. Commodore gets a short mention.
Malone also has an interesting chapter on the lives of factory workers in the valley. He writes about how tough it is for them. He also writes about the drug abuse that occurs in the factories. He also writes about the crime in Silicon Valley with secrets and parts being stolen and resold.
The book also has a chapter on how the damage that the Valley does to many people. Malone writes about people who move across the country and work too hard. Marriages collapse and Malone writes that many people are lost.
The Big Score is a really good book for anyone interested the history of Silicon Valley. The book is forty years old this year and covers the previous forty years of Silicon Valley’s history fairly well. It is a bit of a hard read though. There are so many characters that come and go.
October 12, 2023
Out of all the "History of the Tech Industry" reading I’ve been doing recently, this is my favorite. It presents the story of all the actors in place, from factory workers to founders to CEO implants. The writing is pretty humorous at times and that thankfully keeps this text entertaining, because can be an otherwise dry topic.
I really appreciate that the bios given to all the main players talk about their flaws as much as their skills (for example I was somewhat surprised to learn that Shockley was unqualified to lead a company). Quite a bit refreshing compared to today’s ridiculous celebrity worship of CEOs (you know the ones). Speaking of “today”, I would love to see an updated version of this book, to talk about more contemporary developments in the industry. I think this book goes until late 1980's.
Key takeaway: nothing has changed, from scheming VCs to Adderall-fueled and overworked pawns.
Recommended to anyone curious about the start of Silicon Valley’s legacy.
I really appreciate that the bios given to all the main players talk about their flaws as much as their skills (for example I was somewhat surprised to learn that Shockley was unqualified to lead a company). Quite a bit refreshing compared to today’s ridiculous celebrity worship of CEOs (you know the ones). Speaking of “today”, I would love to see an updated version of this book, to talk about more contemporary developments in the industry. I think this book goes until late 1980's.
Key takeaway: nothing has changed, from scheming VCs to Adderall-fueled and overworked pawns.
Recommended to anyone curious about the start of Silicon Valley’s legacy.
July 11, 2024
this book was. a slog.
a lot of it just isn’t relevant anymore. I found it interesting to see profiles of the people who built Silicon Valley, and get a sense of the energy in the air at the time— i quite liked the long personal histories of the founders. i was so frustrated with this book at first because i didn’t parse it as an anthropological deep dive, but after that framing i enjoyed it a lot more.
on the whole was still a lot of work to get through, and the whole time i had this feeling that i was wasting my time. i would endorse reading this book if you pick a few chapters of founders you find interesting (eg Bob Noyce + William Shockley/Fairchild chapter, HP), but I would not read the whole thing. kinda contributed to me dropping off reading a bit.
a lot of it just isn’t relevant anymore. I found it interesting to see profiles of the people who built Silicon Valley, and get a sense of the energy in the air at the time— i quite liked the long personal histories of the founders. i was so frustrated with this book at first because i didn’t parse it as an anthropological deep dive, but after that framing i enjoyed it a lot more.
on the whole was still a lot of work to get through, and the whole time i had this feeling that i was wasting my time. i would endorse reading this book if you pick a few chapters of founders you find interesting (eg Bob Noyce + William Shockley/Fairchild chapter, HP), but I would not read the whole thing. kinda contributed to me dropping off reading a bit.
January 23, 2024
An excellent history of the Silicon Valley from the beginnings (pre-WWII) to early 1980s, when the book was written. This was back when Silicon Valley was really centered around actual silicon (hardware), as opposed to the gentler, softer Silicon Valley of today which is basically almost entirely software and social media (sorry, Bay Area dwellers). Malone presents very interesting details and commentary about the histories of legendary Silicon Valley companies like HP, Fairchild, Ampex, Atari, and many others.
Definitely a little dated now, but still of interest to anyone who would like to learn how it all started. Highly recommended.
Definitely a little dated now, but still of interest to anyone who would like to learn how it all started. Highly recommended.
February 24, 2023
The thing that makes this book worth reading is the fact that it was written nearly contemporaneously with the events it describes. We're so used to hearing the story of silicon valley written decades after the fact, and the survivorship bias that that necessarily imposes.
At the time of writing, videogames seem to be nothing more than a fad similar to the hula hoop. National Semiconductor is a titan of the industry. And prospects are grim for Apple, after IBM is unconstrained from threat of antitrust action.
It's also interesting to read about the gray market for ICs, and other seedy/illegal activities that one doesn't often hear about from silicon valley's early history
At the time of writing, videogames seem to be nothing more than a fad similar to the hula hoop. National Semiconductor is a titan of the industry. And prospects are grim for Apple, after IBM is unconstrained from threat of antitrust action.
It's also interesting to read about the gray market for ICs, and other seedy/illegal activities that one doesn't often hear about from silicon valley's early history
December 29, 2022
Great book to read if you are living or working in the valley. Amazing to see the parallels between the 60s/70s/80s and the modern tech industry. Many of the same characters and stories as we see today. A big difference is the nature of the labor force. Lots of manual labor in the early electronics industry that no longer exists in the software industry today, or at least does not sit in the valley.
January 4, 2023
A nice history of Silicon Valley from its inception to the mid-80s, focusing on the silicon-making hardware companies before all the software firms took over. I don't think much has changed in terms of the people, the necessary-evil of assholes at the top, and eager-to-please workaholics at the bottom. There's something to that very American mix that drives and super-powers innovation, and perhaps that's fine, just not something to try and emulate everywhere else.
February 6, 2022
The Big Score covered the humble beginning of Silicon Valley and shed some light on why it's called like this. It was an interesting read about the early years of the silicon industry and how that shaped the area in general. I feel like big part was missing from the larger picture of explaining why companies stayed in that area and how SF started to flourish.
March 25, 2024
This is a Stripe Press book which is why I wanted to read it. Really cool collection of early SV stories and company biographies, and you can take away a few distinct management/organizational philosophies from them. Also has a psychological analysis of “Silicon Valley Syndrome” as a final chapter which was unexpected but good. A couple bleh chapters in the middle but overall very good
July 25, 2025
An interesting insight into the history of Silicon Valley and some of its legends. It’s worth a read if you have an interest in the tech industry and want further insight into how Silicon Valley got its roots and became the tech mecha it is today.
It’s written very well but it’s not a book I’d recommend unless you have an interest in tech and its history.
It’s written very well but it’s not a book I’d recommend unless you have an interest in tech and its history.
April 13, 2023
Mildly interesting as a lesson that the current set of hot companies will soon be forgotten.
Asides from the inevitable aging of social attitudes, and a lack of accurate prediction, it's laughably bad whenever the subject of video games arises.
Asides from the inevitable aging of social attitudes, and a lack of accurate prediction, it's laughably bad whenever the subject of video games arises.
February 4, 2022
The book was published in 1985, and SV has proven to be timeless
Read
April 25, 2023 A good review of Silicon Valley from the 60s to the 80s. It is a bit full of itself and I get the feeling some of the text is over the top.
May 1, 2023
One of Michael Malone's earlier works on Silicon Valley. Still a classic, so beautifully written and an absolute pleasure to read.
January 16, 2024
just a bunch of crazy kids figuring it out
Read
March 3, 2024I didn’t realize this would be about silicon valley’s FOUNDING days… discovering the word “internet” isn’t in this book was a surprise
June 10, 2024
An interesting and colourful dive into Silicon Valley from the 40s to the 80s. Certainly worth reading to understand the precursors to the tech giants of today.
October 8, 2024
Interesting especially with the context in where the industry has evolved since then
October 14, 2025
Interesting history of silicon valley written in 1985. It's funny how much has stayed true about Silicon Valley despite all of the changes on the surface
June 1, 2023
Quite an enjoyable tour of Silicon Valley history beginning when from the time of the invention of transistor and ending roughly in late 80s (few years after the first "PC" companies were founded). The book has chapters covering era's and companies interspersed with profiles of company founders. You get vivid coverage along with witty sharp tongued commentary. Of course, you get tonnes of trivia as you read about the history. Having worked in the tech industry for a decade now - It was fun to see past examples of history repeating itself. You can take anything people say about tech today "too much capital", "trend chasing", etc. and find people said the same things 50 years ago!
I appreciate Michael Malone's rather sceptical tone - neither awed nor dismissive.
Recommended only to people who are both history buffs and tech bros.
I appreciate Michael Malone's rather sceptical tone - neither awed nor dismissive.
Recommended only to people who are both history buffs and tech bros.
August 9, 2022
The first half or so was really good, particularly when it was discussing events that were already considered history when the book was written. As it transitioned to stories that were happening around the time of writing, it became less interesting and more speculative. Much of what was predicted about the future (now our past) did not end up matching actual events.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews