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This Former Intel CEO Wants to Jumpstart Moore’s Law With Light
Former Intel chief executive Pat Gelsinger has joined venture capital firm Playground Capital, where he aims to back "deep tech" semiconductor startups that could reignite Moore's Law, the decades-old prediction that transistor density doubles roughly every two years. Gelsinger left Intel in late 2024 and, after weighing roles in government, academia, private equity and industry, chose venture capital because it lets him focus on unproven, cutting-edge science rather than financial returns alone. He argues that as shrinking transistors becomes prohibitively expensive, the next leap in chip performance will come from advances in lithography, the light-based process used to etch circuits onto silicon.
As part of this push, Gelsinger has taken a board seat at xLight, a lithography startup that has also secured US government investment, and continues to champion progress beyond the 13.5-nanometre wavelength light used by current market leader ASML. He told Wired that artificial intelligence has dramatically widened opportunities in deep tech investing, noting the semiconductor industry is now expected to reach a trillion dollars in value a year earlier than the 2030 target set in 2024. Gelsinger believes many venture firms are chasing this shift without the expertise to properly evaluate unproven physics-based ventures, a gap he says his engineering background allows him to fill.
In short
- Ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger joins Playground Capital to back deep-tech chip startups.
- He's betting on lithography breakthroughs to revive Moore's Law.
- Semiconductor industry now expected to hit $1 trillion a year early.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Moore's Law has historically advanced through lithography breakthroughs and remains vital for semiconductor competitiveness. Venture capital with deep technical expertise can fund high-risk physics innovations that larger corporations might rationally avoid, and the present convergence of AI demand, government backing, and escalating costs creates an opportune moment for such investment. Gelsinger's combination of industry experience and technical credentials positions him to evaluate and fund genuine breakthroughs in advanced light-based chip manufacturing.
The case against
Moore's Law may be hitting fundamental physical limits that lithography improvements alone cannot overcome, making incremental refinements potentially a diminishing return when resources might achieve more transformative results through radically different approaches like 3D architectures or novel computing paradigms. Venture capital's time horizons and profit incentives are inherently misaligned with the decades-long, high-uncertainty research that fundamental physics breakthroughs require, suggesting larger corporations or government-backed institutions, despite their operational constraints, may be better positioned for such foundational innovation.
Explained simply
Moore's Law is a decades-old prediction that the density of transistors on computer chips roughly doubles every two years, driving progress in computing power. This principle has underpinned the semiconductor industry for generations, though continuing to shrink transistors is now becoming prohibitively expensive.
Pat Gelsinger, a former chief executive of Intel, has recently joined venture capital firm Playground Capital. There he aims to invest in semiconductor companies working on technologies that could revitalise Moore's Law.
Rather than pursuing further transistor miniaturisation, Gelsinger is backing companies focused on lithography—the light-based manufacturing process that etches circuits onto silicon. He argues that advances in this approach will deliver the next major leap in chip performance, particularly as artificial intelligence drives unprecedented demand for semiconductors.
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