Integrated Circuit and the Future of US AI Leadership (warontherocks.com)

• Air Force funded integrated circuit development at Texas Instruments in 1958.
• Military procurement lowered costs, enabling commercial adoption.
• Today: semiconductor production concentrated in Taiwan creates strategic dependencies.
• US government took ~10% equity in Intel in 2025 to secure domestic production.
• AI development is private-sector-led; government responds with export controls.

"The history of the integrated circuit shows how government risk-taking and military procurement launched a transformative technology later commercialized. AI now mirrors this pattern, but with frontier development led by private firms and government acting as customer and regulator. The article analyzes tensions between public and private control of strategic technologies, drawing lessons from the semiconductor experience."