Semiconductors

Precision signal conversion is not magic — it’s Analog Devices’ 1965 bet that the world would need chips that don’t lie about voltage.

Applied Materials isn’t an invention — it’s the infrastructure that made integrated fabrication inevitable.

ASML didn’t invent lithography—it weaponised integration, turning a crowded market into a single-point failure for global computing.

Mead didn’t invent the microchip — he invented how to think about shrinking it without guessing.

Custom silicon—not marketing—made the C64 dominant. Everything else was cost engineering.

Federico Faggin didn’t invent the idea of a microprocessor—he built the first one that actually worked, and forced the world to take it seriously.

A foundry built to escape AMD’s balance sheet became a specialist anchor—just as the industry stopped chasing nanometres.

Moore’s law is not physics—it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy written in silicon.

Maxim didn’t invent analog — it weaponised compatibility.

NFC isn’t magic — it’s NXP’s tightly controlled radio handshake, built to replace plastic cards with chips you already carry.

Samsung wasn’t born a chipmaker—it bought its way in, merged its way up, and declared its way to relevance.

Europe didn’t need another chipmaker — it needed a sovereign stack. ST built one, slowly, silently, and without hype.

Calling 'Texas Instruments (1930)' an invention confuses corporate founding with technological creation — and erases 24 years of actual engineering.