Chris Miller chronicles the seventy-year struggle to control the technology that powers everything from smartphones to military systems. Miller, an economic historian at Tufts, argues that semiconductors have become the essential resource of the twenty-first century, as important as oil was in the twentieth. The book traces the chip industry from its origins in Silicon Valley through its globalization and the current competition between the United States and China for dominance. Miller explains how manufacturing advanced chips requires extraordinary precision--features smaller than viruses--and how only a handful of companies possess the capability. He examines how Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company became the world's most important chipmaker, how the Netherlands' ASML achieved a monopoly in the lithography machines essential to production, and how America's export controls attempt to prevent China from catching up. The book connects technical history to geopolitical strategy, showing how chips have become weaponized in great power competition. Miller writes accessibly about complex technology while maintaining analytical rigor about economic and political dynamics. The book provides essential background for understanding supply chain vulnerabilities, industrial policy debates, and the possibility of conflict over Taiwan, where most advanced chip production is concentrated.