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The two companies driving the modern economy

By Darian Woods,
Wailin Wong, Adrian Ma, Julia Ritchey, Viet Le, Kate Concannon
Published July 4, 2024 at 8:59 AM EDT
HSINCHU, TAIWAN - SEPTEMBER 16: A closeup of a silicon wafer on display at Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institution on September 16, 2022 in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Annabelle Chih
/
Getty Images
HSINCHU, TAIWAN - SEPTEMBER 16: A closeup of a silicon wafer on display at Taiwan Semiconductor Research Institution on September 16, 2022 in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

At the core of most of the electronics we use today are some very tiny, very powerful chips. Semiconductor chips. And they are mighty: they help power our phones, laptops, and cars. They enable advances in healthcare, military systems, transportation, and clean energy. And they're also critical for artificial intelligence, providing the hardware needed to train complex machine learning.

On today's episode, we're bringing you two stories from our daily show The Indicator, diving into the two most important semiconductor chip companies, which have transformed the industry over the past 40 years.

First, we trace NVIDIA's journey from making niche graphics cards for gaming to making the most advanced chips in the world — and briefly becoming the world's biggest company. Next, we see how the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's decision to manufacture chips for its competition instead of itself flipped the entire industry on its head, and moved the vast majority of the world's advanced chip production to Taiwan.

This episode was hosted by Darian Woods, Wailin Wong, and Adrian Ma. The Indicator episodes were originally produced by Julia Ritchey and Viet Le, with help from Nicky Ouellet and Willa Rubin. They were edited by Kate Concannon, and engineered by Cena Loffredo, James Willetts and Neal Rauch. The original episodes were fact-checked by Taylor Washington and Sierra Juarez, and the Planet Money edition was fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episode about NVIDIA by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

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Music: Universal Music Production - "Mitosis," "Moonbeam Milkshakes." Audio Network - "Fashion Statement," "Chop Me Silly."

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Darian Woods
Darian Woods is a reporter and producer for The Indicator from Planet Money. He blends economics, journalism, and an ear for audio to tell stories that explain the global economy. He's reported on the time the world got together and solved a climate crisis, vaccine intellectual property explained through cake baking, and how Kit Kat bars reveal hidden economic forces.
See stories by Darian Woods
Wailin Wong
Wailin Wong is a long-time business and economics journalist who's reported from a Chilean mountaintop, an embalming fluid factory and lots of places in between. She is a host of The Indicator from Planet Money. Previously, she launched and co-hosted two branded podcasts for a software company and covered tech and startups for the Chicago Tribune. Wailin started her career as a correspondent for Dow Jones Newswires in Buenos Aires. In her spare time, she plays violin in one of the oldest community orchestras in the U.S.
Adrian Ma
Adrian Ma covers work, money and other "business-ish" for NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator from Planet Money.
Julia Ritchey
Julia Ritchey is an audio journalist with 15 years experience reporting, editing and podcasting all over the country. She's reported from eight states and all four U.S. time zones, most recently at Nashville Public Radio, Tennessee's largest NPR affiliate, overseeing the station's policy, environmental and education beats.
Viet Le
Viet Le (he/him) is a senior producer at The Indicator from Planet Money, NPR's daily economics podcast. Before that, he edited and helped launch NPR's daily science podcast, Short Wave. His career at NPR started at All Things Considered in 2008, first as a booker and then producer. He also spent a couple of years helping to get NPR One off the ground, and worked as an editor on Weekend Edition. But no matter what his professional accomplishments at the network, he will perhaps be most remembered in the newsroom for convincing a Virginia farmer to put lipstick on one of his pigs for an ATC segment.
Kate Concannon
Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money. She leads this small, collaborative team of hosts, reporters and producers in making sense of crucial, but often complex and confusing, economic news in just 10 minutes a day.