Chris Miller’s Chip War is available on Audible as a 12 hrs 38 mins unabridged audiobook, narrated by Stephen Graybill.
Publisher’s Summary
The Financial Times Business Book of the Year, this epic account of the decades-long battle to control one of the world’s most critical resources—microchip technology—with the United States and China increasingly in fierce competition is “pulse quickening…a nonfiction thriller” (The New York Times).
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America’s military superiority and economic prosperity.
Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the US became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America’s victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. Until recently, China had been catching up, aligning its chip-building ambitions with military modernization. Here, in this paperback edition of the book, the author has added intriguing new material focused on “America’s Chip Comeback,” which overviews the global consequences of the just passed CHIPS Act, the new export controls on China, and the effort to rally allies to better guard chip technology.
Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War is “an essential and engrossing landmark study” (The Times, London).
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs 38 mins
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Release year: 2022
- Audible category: Money & Finance / International / Economics
Listener Ratings
Chip War holds an average listener rating of 4.8/5 from 2803 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.7/5
- Story: 4.8/5
- 5-star ratings: 81% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
5/5 stars — “Much needed context for a tech worker”
Enjoyed the overall presentation style of the book. Started by explaining the technical details and later zoomed out to the geo-political aspect of the issue. Very interesting listen.— Sornakumar, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Missing crypto”
I thought really informative discussion of the global supply chains underlying various types of chip manufacturing and the national security implications thereof. What occurred to me is that although crypto mining has been using up the electricity production of entire countries in order to run the nVidia (mostly) chips doing the calculations involved – the word crypto was not mentioned once, but the abbreviation AI was used hundreds of times as a technology requiring the specific computing power of Graphic chips. Not sure that AI and crypto mining are really comparable.Personally I thought the diction of the narrator was a bit off – as if there indeed was an AI speaking. YMMV.
— M. Lafleur, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Historical”
A long fascinating history of what is today’s life blood of nearly everything we touch on a daily basis— poltroon, Audible listener
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