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Episode 2: When the Chips are Down

The story of chips continues, as the global demand for microprocessors surges Misha Glenny asks what happens when the world鈥檚 access to this transformative technology is in jeopardy.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, chip shortages hit industries across the globe, forcing governments to rethink how we all access this critical technology. Misha speaks to Chris Miller, the author of the bestselling book Chip War, about how the USA, China and the European Union are reimagining where and who manufactures our chips.

On an island in the South China Sea, you鈥檒l find one of the biggest players in microchips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC. Misha talks to Nigel Inkster, the former director of operations for the British Secret Intelligence Service about how Taiwanese chip making became central to the growing strategic and military rivalry between the USA and China and how the industry in Taiwan came to be known as the 鈥渟ilicon shield.鈥�

If the way we make microchips is to be reimagined, then central to that new vision will be some of the world鈥檚 most innovative tech companies. Misha delves into the modern scientific miracle of making microprocessors as small as a string of DNA with Ann Kelleher from Intel, Paul Williamson of ARM and ASML鈥檚 Jos Benschop.

With microchips now central to so much of the world鈥檚 tech, Nigel Inkster and the New York Times journalist John Liu guide Misha through the dark arts of corporate espionage and explain how corporations and nations try and obtain access to new technologies by fair means and foul.