The Semiconductor Wars

The most important geopolitical battleground of the twenty-first century fits on your fingertip.

Inside every smartphone, every electric car, every missile guidance system, and every AI data centre sits a semiconductor chip. The entity that controls the production of those chips controls the economy, the military, and the future. That is why Washington, Beijing, Brussels, and Tokyo are waging the most consequential industrial war in history - and why the stakes of losing have never been higher.

The Semiconductor Wars is the essential guide to this hidden conflict. Analyst Nicholas Holt traces the full arc of the story: from the invention of the transistor in a Bell Labs garage to the rise of Taiwan's TSMC as the world's most strategically critical company; from the CHIPS Act and the race to re-shore manufacturing to China's desperate push to break through the technology blockade; from ASML's Dutch monopoly on extreme ultraviolet lithography to the looming questions of quantum computing and what comes after silicon.

Inside The Semiconductor Wars:

• How a sliver of sand became the most valuable commodity on earth
• Why Taiwan controls the world's most dangerous factory - and what happens if that factory goes dark
• The CHIPS Act, the Dutch export controls, and the new era of techno-nationalism
• China's silicon dream: how far behind is it really, and can it catch up?
• The weaponisation of supply chains and the great decoupling
• The battle for talent: engineers, espionage, and the brains the industry runs on
• Beyond silicon: quantum, photonics, and the next technological frontier