Gordon Moore is a billion-dollar inventor and businessman. He co-founded the biggest chipmaking company on earth, Intel.
Dr Moore was Emeritus Chairman, Intel.
Moore co-founded Intel, the largest U.S. chipmaker. The Santa Clara, California-based company manufactures Pentium, Atom and Itanium brand microprocessors, and had revenue of $78 billion in 2020
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Education
Moore attended Sequoia High School before he gained admission to study Chemistry at San Jose State University. Two years later, he transferred his study to the University of California and graduated with a first degree in Chemistry in 1950.
He then went ahead to further his education and got a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in 1954.
Career
He moved on to further his research and work in Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and was there till 1956 when he got an irresistible offer from Shockley.
Shockley, co-invented the transistor offered Moore the Research Chemist role at Shockley Semiconductors. Gordon, being passionate about chemistry didn’t think twice. It was here that he met Robert Noyce. Unfortunately, Shockley had very poor management skills and his staff didn’t like it. So Moore, Noyce and 6 others (referred to as the “rebellious eight”) left and started Fairchild Semiconductor.
Gordon Moore at Fairchild
Fairchild, in 1957, started just south of San Francisco in an area currently known as Silicon Valley. Noyce was President and Moore was head of Research and Development. Fairchild was producing semiconductors competing with others in the industry.
Fairchild’s boom started when IBM ordered 100 silicon transistors. They also had massive profit and popularity, in 1959, when President Noyce invented the integrated circuit. It was six years later that Moore’s Law was established. Fairchild’s massive growth was extraordinary recording a profit of $150million. Unfortunately, Noyce and Moore had a misunderstanding with the rest of the team and they had to leave.
Gordon Moore, Intel
In 1968, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce established Intel Corporation. Noyce was President and Moore was VP. In 1969, Intel released its first product, a bipolar memory chip and in 1971 they released the first microprocessor consisting of a small computer on four chips designed to work in calculators.
By 1973, Intel recorded a profit of $66,000,000 and in 1979 made a record breaking $650,000,000 with 14,000 staffs.
In 1975, Noyce stepped down and Moore took the mantle of leadership. In his first year, he recorded a $15million loss from a new product, the Microma ( a digital wristwatch). Moore became Chairman in 1979 and Groove was named President. The company continued to struggle under the leadership of this duo until they landed a deal with IBM to supply microprocessors. Moore, in desperate need of funds, sold 12% of the company’s stake to IBM for $250million. This enabled the company to compete with new Japanese tech firms in the industry.
Gordon Moore decided to focus on Microprocessors instead of memory chips and Intel produced one of the most powerful microprocessors in the hardware tech industry.
In 1987, he stepped down as CEO but remained Chairman. The company started making profits again. In 1997 he was named Chairman emeritus. That same year, Intel inveiled Pentium II. In 2000, Intel recorded 13 consecutive years of growth recording $33.7billion in profit and 86,000 employees. In 2001 he retired from Intel as Chairman Emeritus.
“If everything you try works, you aren’t trying hard enough.”
Gordon Moore
What is Moore’s Law?
In 1965, the billionaire predicted what was adopted as Moore’s Law, in this law he predicted that computing power, i.e number of transistors, would double every 2 years and the price of the device will reduce by half.
Age
Dr Moore was born on 3rd January 1929 in San Fransisco. Currently he is 95 years old.
I have received questions from people asking if he is still alive. Yes, Gordon Moore is still alive.
Gordon Moore Family
Gordon met Betty Irene Whitaker at San Jose State University and married her on September 9, 1950. The couple has two children, Kenneth and Stevens Moore.
Gordon Moore Net Worth
This billion-dollar businessman, as of March 2022, is worth $10.2Billion. In 2020, Intel recorded profit od
Awards and Recognition
| Year | Award / Recognition |
| 1986 | Computer Entrepreneur Award |
| 1978 | W. Wallace McDowell Award |
| 1978 | Harry Goode Memorial Award |
| 2002 | Bower Award for his business leadership skills |
| 2002 | Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honour, from George W. Bush. |
| 2008 | IEEE Medal of Honor. |
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Gordon Moore alongside his wife Betty, in 2000, built the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to “create positive outcomes for future generations”. They came up with this project to support scientific discovery, environmental conservation and patient care.
This foundation contributed $200million to the TMT Project at Caltech. TMT (Thirty Meter Telescope) was designed to be one of the most powerful telescopes in the world.
They have also contributed to other areas like marine biology, data science research, quantum research, biology etc.