If there is one thing that will completely turn the world upside down, it is a short circuit in the semiconductor industry. From phones to cars, from washing machines to cloud computing and the military industry, today almost nothing works without microcircuits.

The Chip War is a book that reads like an adventure novel, from the industry’s birth in the 1960s, to the titanic numbers that defined it, to the political and strategic struggles surrounding it.

It is the fascinating story of the smallest objects ever created by man, the most expensive factories ever built, the most sophisticated and complex network of design, production and assembly. A world dominated by the United States trying to conquer China, where Russia has failed miserably and Taiwan has built the strongest defense possible: the world’s largest semiconductor factory.

READ MORE ON PANORAMA.