Chip War Audiobook By Chris Miller cover art

Chip War

The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Chip War

By: Chris Miller
Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.24

Buy for $20.24

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2023

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.

Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War is “an essential and engrossing landmark study" (London Times).

©2022 Christopher Miller. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Economics Geopolitics War Military United States Cold War China War
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Chip War

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,883
  • 4 Stars
    326
  • 3 Stars
    68
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,497
  • 4 Stars
    320
  • 3 Stars
    96
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,636
  • 4 Stars
    232
  • 3 Stars
    59
  • 2 Stars
    11
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptionally Important Read For Today’s Great Power Competition

This is a seminal work articulating very clearly the heart of the current great power competition. If you want to know what worries senior leaders and industry captains, you want to make this the highest priority read on your list. Great overview of tech development and competition, as well as why tech is the foremost component of the balance of power in the world right now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent!

Excellent book! Comparable to a Daniel Yergin book on energy. I hope Chris Miller decides to write a follow-up to Chip Wars in the coming years.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What an great book

Gives you the necessary information if you want to start to understand the complexity, necessity, of this wonderful invention . It as well show the greatness of the human mind striving for more freedom.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent overview

Thanks to the authors for an extraordinary overview of this key technology. I only wish that they would have extended a bit more to speculate on future developments, particularly in area of AI.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

Super interesting. I heard someone mention “why do we (the United States) care about Taiwan? I now know a big reason why their sovereignty matters. Great book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A illuminating story about Chip Industry

I enjoyed the book more for its first half as it walked through the intriguing stories about the computer chips, which we took for granted in our daily life, step by step, went from wizarding gadgets in missiles and satellites, to mass produced goods, and now to the center of geopolitics

Countless hours spent and brilliant personnels with wild visions involved its creation almost makes it heroic and mythological.

The latter half of the book felt however like a CNN news briefing of recent events and predictions, which is less interesting to me, but engaging enough

Overall solid read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Excellent Overview of the History of the Development of Semiconductors and their key role in the post-industrial world.

Required reading for everyone concerned about the US-China relationship and the role of semiconductor dependency on Taiwan in preventing a confrontation. The first 2/3 of the book provides a against history of the development of semi conductors and their core role in the modern world, a story told in more detail elsewhere.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Super Enlightening and Generally Enjoyable

I now feel like I have a much better understanding of the semiconductor industry and it’s intricacies than before. Really enjoyable history of the industry.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great content and pacing; Enjoyed the narrator

Excellent recent summary of the semiconductor industry and related geopolitical issues. I also found the narrator well paced and easy to understand.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

This is the best technology history book ever.

So good. Deep insight into business, geopolitics, physics and innovation. A grand synthesis where at the end you feel a euphoric sense of how everything and everyone is connected through time and geography via chip technology. Sent shivers down my spine as it finished.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!