America's semiconductor industry, once the pride of Silicon Valley, suddenly found itself in the midst of fierce competition in the 1980s. Japanese companies were surging like an irresistible wave. One silent but important hero in this story was Hewlett-Packard (HP) executive Richard Anderson. He set strict criteria for which memory chips HP would buy. Therefore, the fate of semiconductor vendors depended on his decisions.
In 1968, student protests in Berkeley and communist unrest in Beijing shook the world. Meanwhile, the Palo Alto Times published a small but groundbreaking piece of news titled "Founders leave Fairchild: Build their electronics company."
Two top executives of the US Texas Instruments Company—Mark Shepherd and Maurice Chang—flew to Taiwan in 1968. Their goal was to find a suitable location for a new factory for chip assembly.
Female workers in Asia played an extraordinary role in the chip-making revolution from the beginning of the modern semiconductor industry. Although mainly men were working on the design of transistors, a group of skilled hands was needed to transform the designed chips into real products that would be fast, accurate, and low-budget. Women filled this gap, especially women workers on assembly lines.
The wounds of World War II were still unhealed. The United States wanted to destroy Japan's technology sector completely in the beginning. However, they changed this mindset over time. They realized that the role of a strong Japan is unavoidable in maintaining stability in the world. So America decided to pave the way for Japan to advance in technology while maintaining its leadership.