Silicon Valley was born in name and need from the most important chemical ingredient (silicon) in the microchip. And no law has ruled the Valley more profoundly than Moore’s law, which holds that you can double the power of microchips — and therefore the processing power of computers — every two years.
The big picture: The Economist warns the law is dying.
- The reason: Chips are so small and so efficient that it costs insane amounts of money to keep the doubling going.
- "Chipmakers jokingly refer to Moore’s second law, which says the cost of a chip factory doubles every four years."
Go deeper: Computer chips are still "Made in USA"
