The Rise and Rise of the Microchip

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The Rise and Rise of The Microchip

The story of the microchip's Cold War past, corporate present and quantum future.

Broadcaster and writer Misha Glenny tells the story of the microchip's Cold War past, corporate present and quantum future.

Inside all the world's electronic devices, there's a story of innovation but there's also a tale of espionage and the battle of nations and corporations for technological supremacy. It's the story of the microchip and it will go a long way in determining who comes out on top in what some call the new Cold War: China or the West?

The broadcaster and writer Misha Glenny takes us from a Soviet bunker on the brink of nuclear war to the inner workings of Europe's most high-tech facilities. He encounters spies, entrepreneurs and quantum conundrums en route to discovering how something that can now be as small as a single strand of DNA may determine the fate of nations and perhaps, even of humanity itself.

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The Rise and Rise of the Microchip: When the Chips are Down

When the Chips are Down

BBC Radio 4 - The Rise and Rise of the Microchip, When the Chips are Down

Episode 2: When the Chips are Down

The story of chips continues, as the global demand for microprocessors surges Misha Glenny asks what happens when the world’s access to this transformative technology is in jeopardy.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, chip shortages hit industries across the globe, forcing governments to rethink how we all access this critical technology. Misha speaks to Chris Miller, the author of the bestselling book Chip War, about how the USA, China and the European Union are reimagining where and who manufactures our chips.

On an island in the South China Sea, you’ll find one of the biggest players in microchips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC.  Misha talks to Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for the British Secret Intelligence Service about how Taiwanese chip making became central to the growing strategic and military rivalry between the USA and China and how the industry in Taiwan came to be known as the “silicon shield.”  

If the way we make microchips is to be reimagined, then central to that new vision will be some of the world’s most innovative tech companies. Misha delves into the modern scientific miracle of making microprocessors as small as a string of DNA with Ann Kelleher from Intel, Paul Williamson of ARM and ASML’s Jos Benschop. 

With microchips now central to so much of the world’s tech, Nigel Inkster and the New York Times journalist John Liu guide Misha through the dark arts of corporate espionage and explain how corporations and nations try and obtain access to new technologies by fair means and foul.

Presented by Misha Glenny, Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Produced by Mugabi Turya and Olivia Sopel

Archive clips:
Biden signing the US Chip Act into Law (Source: The White House)
News report on US-China export controls (Source: CBS News)
Neuralink Announcement January 2024

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