For sure whether directly or indirectly. I don't think we'd be where we are without Eniac. I wouldn't be surprised if most of Intel's early customers where in some way or shape related to NASA or DARPA/Defense. IBM got its start also by selling hardware and software to the government. Even though those may not be semiconductors as we see today, we wouldn't have gotten the innovation of semiconductors, at least as early as we did, without the government essentially bootstrapping computing on scale.
Intel specifically, I couldn't say. But the government was a huge early customer of SV chip companies - particularly those that had to do with optics. The USA proudly (but quietly) had the best spy satellites in the world for decades, and the semiconductor industry was a big factor in why they did. Maybe still do - hard to know exactly without a hell of a lot of security clearances.
Highly recommend Steve Blanks "Secret History of Silicon Valley" for more on this:
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For sure whether directly or indirectly. I don't think we'd be where we are without Eniac. I wouldn't be surprised if most of Intel's early customers where in some way or shape related to NASA or DARPA/Defense. IBM got its start also by selling hardware and software to the government. Even though those may not be semiconductors as we see today, we wouldn't have gotten the innovation of semiconductors, at least as early as we did, without the government essentially bootstrapping computing on scale.
Intel specifically, I couldn't say. But the government was a huge early customer of SV chip companies - particularly those that had to do with optics. The USA proudly (but quietly) had the best spy satellites in the world for decades, and the semiconductor industry was a big factor in why they did. Maybe still do - hard to know exactly without a hell of a lot of security clearances.
Highly recommend Steve Blanks "Secret History of Silicon Valley" for more on this:
https://steveblank.com/secret-history/?amp