Term explained
What is a semiconductor (computer chip)?
A semiconductor is a material, usually silicon, used to make computer chips. "Semiconductors" is also the everyday name for the chips themselves and the industry that makes them.
In plain English
A semiconductor is a material that can either let electricity through or block it, depending on how it is treated. Silicon is the most common. By carving billions of tiny switches, called transistors, into a thin slice of silicon, factories make the chips that run every phone, car, laptop and AI system.
Making the most advanced chips is one of the hardest manufacturing jobs in the world. The circuits are thousands of times thinner than a human hair, and the factories, called fabs, cost billions of dollars each.
Why it matters
Every AI model runs on chips, so whoever can make the best chips has a huge advantage. Production of the most advanced chips is concentrated in very few companies and places, especially Taiwan, which is why countries such as the US, China, Japan and India are spending heavily on factories at home.
An example
An Nvidia AI chip is designed in California, manufactured by TSMC using machines from the Dutch company ASML, fitted with memory that is often made in South Korea, and packaged and tested in yet another country. A problem anywhere in that chain can delay AI products worldwide.
What to watch out for
News about chips often mixes up three different jobs: designing chips (Nvidia, Apple), manufacturing them (TSMC, Samsung, Intel) and assembling and testing them. A country “making chips” might only be doing one of these. See what powers AI.