Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel and a pioneer in the semiconductor industry, passed away at the age of 94 at his home in Hawaii, surrounded by family. Along with other technology luminaries, Moore helped establish Intel in 1968, and the company eventually became a major player in the personal computer industry, with their “Intel Inside” processors being used in over 80% of PCs worldwide. In 1965, Moore noted that the number of transistors on microchips had been doubling every year since integrated circuits were invented, and he predicted that this trend would continue. This prediction became known as “Moore’s Law” and helped drive Intel and other chipmakers to devote significant research and development resources to ensuring that this trend continued. Moore’s foresight also led him to predict the eventual development of home computers, automated car controls, and personal portable communication devices. His predictions were made over two decades before the personal computer revolution and more than 40 years before the launch of the iPhone by Apple.
Moore’s article sparked a technological revolution by making chips more efficient and less expensive at an exponential rate. This progress has contributed to much of the world’s technological advancements for the past 50 years, paving the way not only for personal computers but also for the internet and Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. Moore himself expressed his good fortune for being in the right place at the right time and having the opportunity to grow with the semiconductor industry from its infancy to a point where billions of silicon transistors can fit on a single chip.
While some of Intel’s rivals, such as Nvidia, have suggested that Moore’s Law no longer applies due to manufacturing limitations, Intel’s current CEO, Pat Gelsinger, maintains that the law still holds true. He has committed billions of dollars to Intel’s turnaround efforts, despite recent manufacturing setbacks that have caused the company to lose market share.
Accidental entrepreneur
Moore, who accurately predicted the rise of personal computers, revealed to Forbes magazine that he did not acquire one for his personal use until the late 1980s.
Gordon Moore, who grew up in San Francisco, completed his doctoral studies in chemistry and physics at the California Institute of Technology in 1954. He joined the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory where he met Robert Noyce, a future Intel co-founder, and was part of the “traitorous eight” who left in 1957 to establish Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1968, Moore and Noyce left Fairchild to start Intel, a memory chip company which soon became a dominant player in the semiconductor industry. They recruited Andy Grove, another former Fairchild colleague, to lead the company’s operations and management. Although Moore didn’t have a strong desire to become an entrepreneur, his partnership with Noyce and Grove proved to be successful.
Moore was an exceptional engineer who spent long hours refining Noyce’s ideas, and his talent inspired other engineers at Intel. Under his and Noyce’s leadership, Intel invented the microprocessors that paved the way for the personal computer revolution. Moore served as executive president until 1975, during which he considered himself an equal with CEO Noyce. From 1979 to 1987, Moore was chairman and CEO of Intel, and he remained chairman until 1997.
Moore’s net worth was estimated at $7.2 billion by Forbes magazine in 2023. He was an avid sport fisherman, and with his wife Betty, he established a foundation in 2000 that focused on environmental causes, such as protecting salmon streams and the Amazon River basin. He also gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the California Institute of Technology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project known as SETI.
Moore received a Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, from President George W. Bush in 2002. He and his wife had two children.
