They are pushing tools to the edge, scaling up and relying on fuzzy maths

An illustration of a 15 puzzle square made up of bits of a chip with a finger sliding one of the pieces.
Illustration: Alberto Miranda

THE MICROCHIP wars have been running since 2018. That was when America under Donald Trump (and later Joe Biden and Mr Trump again) began imposing increasingly onerous export restrictions on semiconductor firms hoping to sell their wares in China. This high-tech embargo was intended to frustrate China’s ambitions to build an advanced chipmaking industry of its own.

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The mother of invention”

From the October 25th 2025 edition

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