Key takeaways ▼
By Richard Curtin
Ever since the Silicon Catalyst 2023 Semiconductor Industry Forum
(“Welcome to our AI Wonderland”) I’ve been convinced that the Nobel Prize committee needs to consider awarding a posthumous award to Sir Arthur.
To remind you, Sir Arthur’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” movie was released in 1968. At that point in time the smallest transistor geometry commercially available in the market was about 8,000 nanometers and the total world-wide sales for the semiconductor industry was approximately $14.5 billion in 2026 dollars, adjusted for U.S. inflation.
Before I share my rationale for Sir Arthur’s Nobel Prize, let me tell you about our upcoming 2026 Forum at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View on November 11th.
“What’s Next: AI, Quantum & Space”
November 11, 2026, at the Computer History Museum
The semiconductor industry is approaching a period of transformation unlike anything since the emergence of the internet and mobile computing. The confluence of artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and the rapidly expanding space economy is creating new computing architectures and infrastructure requirements, which is driving the development of solutions that will reshape the semiconductor landscape over the next decade and beyond.
- AI will push computing from centralized data centers to edge devices, autonomous systems, robotics, and physical AI, driving extraordinary demand for computing, memory, connectivity, sensing, photonics, and power efficiency
- Quantum computing, comms, and sensing will create entirely new semiconductor ecosystems built around advanced control electronics, cryogenic systems, photonics, specialized materials, and heterogeneous integration, for broad market solutions
- The further expansion of space-based communications, sensing, potential data centers (e.g. Google Suncatcher launch), and transportation will require a new generation of highly reliable, radiation-tolerant and energy-efficient devices
Join us for an in-depth discussion on November 11th to explore the next wave of transformative innovation for the semiconductor industry.
We’re pleased to have our opening keynote presentation by Tim Breen, CEO of GlobalFoundries entitled:
“AI Everywhere to Quantum at Scale:
Building the semiconductor foundation for the next era of computing”
Tim’s presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Veerbhan Kheterpal PhD, CEO & Co-Founder, Quadric AI.
Veerbhan will be joined onstage by Tim, along with Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield, Dan Dechene, PhD, Head of Foundry Operations from Anderon and Harley Johnson PhD, CEO of the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park (IQMP).
Our 2026 Forum will take place on November 11 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View California and is open to the public. Registration to attend the Forum can be made at
And now to my justification for the Nobel Prize award…
Sir Arthur’s premise that machines will attempt to take control of humanity now seems to be front-and-center every day in the world we live in. To remind you, Sir Arthur was knighted in 2000 by the British government “for services to literature”.
IMHO, it’s time to revisit his contribution to the world. As I see it, the prize committee needs to consider two possible rationales for the nomination to have him receive a Nobel Prize:
Nobel Prize in Physics
Sir Arthur was part of the team that invented a time-machine for his travel back from the future, to warn us about the potential for the good, and the possible bad aspects, of the technological advances our world has come to depend on.
Nobel Prize in Literature
Sir Arthur took Hari Seldon, creator of “psychohistory”, from Asimov’s Foundation series to the next level in his thought-provoking movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey”. He forced us to think about the impact of our technical breakthroughs on our industries, the world’s population and ultimately on our planet’s resources.
If you were to visually summarize the key messages from Sir Arthur’s movie, these images might be a good starting point. The fist pumping image was taken from an impactful keynote presentation by Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan (the inaugural Director, Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, Office of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer, at the Pentagon) opening the Stanford Hacking 4 Defense “Lessons Learned and Final Presentations” that I attended this past April. Shanahan’s image reflects the supportive nature of AI.
I recently tasked ChatGPT to create an alternative viewpoint, resulting in the other image representing our current wrestling match attempting to rein in our AI-based innovations.
Bottom line: If anyone reading this article has connections to the Nobel Prize Nominating Committee, please share my commentary with them, thanks “😊”.
Silicon Catalyst looks forward to having you attend this year’s Semiconductor Industry Forum on November 11th. We suggest you register early, as we expect to have a full house at the Computer History Museum.
By Richard Curtin
Richard has over 40 years of semiconductor industry experience, in the areas of marketing, sales, business development and operations management. He has held executive management positions with semiconductors, Silicon IP, EDA, design and testing services companies — ranging from early-stage, pre-revenue startups seeking funding, to a general manager role at NXP Semiconductors, with P&L responsibility for a $200 million product line.
Also Read:
CEO Interview with Paul Butler of VeriQuantix
Building a Faster Path from Semiconductor Idea to Commercial Silicon
CEO Interview with Brendan Emery of iQ Sense
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