S5 | Episode 3 | The Global Battle for Chips

Two seismic forces that are shaping our world--deglobalization and digitization--are colliding over a single inflection point: semiconductor chips. Chips are the building blocks of the global economy, an irreplaceable enabler of tens of trillions of dollars of annual economic activity. Geopolitically, the stakes could not be higher.

In this conversation, recorded at the NOW Conference in June 2024, Ben Bayat speaks with Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. They discuss the true marvel that is semiconductor manufacturing, the remarkably complex supply chain and its risks, the CHIPS act, the state of the global semiconductor industry, and the precarious national security implications of our collective reliance on these diminutive components.

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Guests

Chris Miller

Associate Professor of International History, Tufts University; Author, Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology

Chris Miller's latest book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology reveals the geopolitical impact of the computer chip. It is a New York Times bestseller and a winner of the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award and won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award. It was featured on many “Best of 2022” book lists, including in the New Yorker and the Economist. Dr. Miller is associate professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. He also advises businesses and asset managers at Greenmantle, a consultancy, serves as a member of the Geopolitics Advisory Council at McKinsey & Company, and advises semiconductor and other technology startups and investors. He is frequently featured and quoted in media such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times, as well as on NPR and CNBC. In addition to Chip War, Dr. Miller’s books include We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin (Harvard University Press, 2021), Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR (University of North Carolina Press, 2016). He has an MA and PhD in history from Yale University and a BA in history from Harvard University.

Moderator

Ben Bayat

Managing Director, NextGen Venture Partners

Ben serves as Managing Partner of NextGen Venture Partners, opening up the firm's west coast office in San Francisco. He leads investing of the Venture Capital fund focusing on early stage technology investments. Prior to joining the firm, Ben was a Partner at Bay Area-based Illuminate Ventures, where he invested in early stage enterprise SaaS companies. He began his career at IBM as a data scientist before moving into executive roles in the engineering and sales groups.

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The Global Battle for Chips