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

by Chris Miller

Taiwan wasn’t alone in thinking that semiconductor supply chains could provide economic growth and bolster political stability. In 1973, Singapore’s leader Lee Kuan Yew told U.S. president Richard Nixon he was counting on exports to “sop up unemployment” in Singapore. With the Singapore government’s support, TI and National Semiconductors built assembly facilities in the city-state. Many other chipmakers followed. By the end of the 1970s, American semiconductor firms employed tens of thousands of workers internationally, mostly in Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. A new international alliance emerged between Texan and Californian chipmakers, Asian autocrats, and the often ethnic-Chinese workers who staffed many of Asia’s semiconductor assembly facilities.