These days the popular press likes to make the point that computer chips are the ‘new oil’. In fact, so does the jacket blurb for Chris Miller’s new book. And yet, for the author of ‘Chip War’, it’s not a particularly helpful comparison. Not because it’s overblown, but because it doesn’t address the central vulnerability of the humble integrated circuit in the 21st century. While Miller states that modern economies “can’t run without either”, governments need to be aware of the potential tensions created by the industry’s lack of geopolitical dispersion: “A far greater proportion of chips comes out of Taiwan than oil does out of Saudi Arabia.”
Miller, who has just won the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year award, is the benefactor of a new trend in the way judges are thinking these days. A decade ago, the laurels were routinely scooped by authors writing on economics, banking, and the rise (or fall) of corporate giants. But then in...