Semiconductors helped win the Cold War, but in recent years strategists, engineers, and lawmakers alike have become deeply concerned about the erosion of America’s technological leadership in an industry Silicon Valley invented. The U.S. dominates chip software and design, but no longer manufactures the leading-edge chips that drive the technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing that are critical for a modern economy and a strong military.
Today, nine in ten of the most advanced chips are produced in Taiwan, on the doorstep of America’s greatest strategic competitor and potential adversary, the People’s Republic of China, whose leader threatens to “reunify” with Taiwan by force if necessary. Meanwhile, Beijing is stealing technology and spending hundreds of billions of dollars chasing the leading edge that U.S. policy makers are increasingly determined to deny them.
To discuss this dynamic competition, SAFE’s American Semiconductor Center hosted an event with Dr. Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology. Dr. Miller is Associate Professor of International History at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Peter Flory, SAFE Senior Fellow and Director of SAFE’s American Semiconductor Center, led the conversation, and was joined by Joris Teer, Strategic Analyst at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies, and co-author of the report, Reaching breaking point: the semiconductor and critical raw material ecosystem at a time of great power rivalry.
