Macrodose Semiconductors & Artificial Intelligence w/ Richard Jones
Oct 29, 2025
In a thought-provoking discussion, Richard Jones, a leading expert in materials physics and innovation policy, explores the critical role of semiconductors in today’s tech landscape. He highlights the strategic importance of these materials from consumer electronics to military applications. Jones also discusses the impacts of recent global events on supply chains and evaluates the UK's position in semiconductor technology. He warns of the energy costs associated with AI’s insatiable demand for compute power and reflects on how these dynamics may lead to a new era of geopolitical tensions.
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Semiconductors Power Everything
- A semiconductor is a material whose conductivity sits between an insulator and a metal and can be deliberately modulated.
- Integrated circuits pack billions of transistors onto chips and underpin virtually all modern electronics.
Globalization Then Geopolitics Pushback
- Semiconductor production became highly globalized with design, fabrication and equipment split across countries.
- Geopolitical risks and supply shocks have prompted governments to try to onshore or regionalize chip capacity.
Moore's Law Plateaus Post-2004
- The historical rapid doubling of computing power (Moore's Law and Dennard scaling) effectively ended around 2004.
- That slowdown raises hard limits on continuing cheap exponential gains in computing performance.
