The “Traitorous Eight” and the Rise of Fairchild Semiconductor

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While Shockley Semiconductor may have been the first company in Silicon Valley, Fairchild Semiconductor, founded by eight former Shockley engineers, enabled thousands of technology companies to flourish.

Led by Nobel Prize winner and the smartest man in the industry, Shockley Semiconductor became Silicon Valley 's first high-tech company. But for many Shockley employees, the allure of working under the co-creator of the first transistor quickly wore off.

William Shockley celebrates his 1956 Nobel Prize with his staff, including Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Sheldon Roberts, and Jay Last

Expert semiconductor knowledge was notoriously hard to come by in the 1950s, but researchers under William Shockley faced numerous challenges—including micromanagement, impatience, and suspicion. Shockley’s paranoia about internal rebellion even prompted a detective-led investigation and threats of polygraph tests.

In addition, employees viewed Shockley as an incompetent businessman. He had a poor relationship with Shockley investor Arnold Beckman, and their outbursts caused increasing friction. Shockley's tendency to jump from project to project, resulting in huge research costs, also threatened the company's future.

In summary, the environment inside Shockley Semiconductor was contemptuous, stressful, and stifling. The bubble was bound to burst at any time. What happened next gave birth to the most influential technological octet of the late 1950s .

The "Eight Rebels" could no longer bear it - the birth of a semiconductor star

By 1957, the engineers’ frustrations had reached a peak. In a mahogany room at the Clift Hotel, eight young scientists , including Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, and Sheldon Roberts , met to discuss how they could leave Shockley Semiconductor and form their own company, with MIT graduate Robert Noyce at the helm. This summit of bright minds (attendees ranged in age from 26 to 33) was the first step in building a company. But no one could have imagined that the company would one day spawn more than 2,000 spinoff technology companies.

The group had all the ingredients needed to succeed on paper. Six of them held Ph.D.s. Noyce was a semiconductor researcher, while Grinich was well versed in electronics. Hoerni brought strong scientific knowledge and management skills. Although not all were experienced professionals, their academic training and apprenticeship under Shockley brought great promise to the company. In the end, their shared perspectives, vision, and youthful energy led them to leave Shockley and create their own company.

Eight Rebels

A key challenge for the eight was convincing others. In their search for investors, they found that geography proved to be a formidable enemy, as their West Coast location was largely devoid of bankers and investors. Those who lived in the East made meetings more difficult to get.

Finally, the eight were able to connect with Arthur Rock and Bud Coyle, experienced bankers from Boston, who helped them attract investors. Still, the group of scientists had to navigate a world largely devoid of venture capitalists as we know it.

Rock and Coyle approached more than 30 potential companies before one—Fairchild Camera and Instrument—stepped forward. Sherman Fairchild, who named the company after him, gave them a $1.4 million loan and a $3 million buyout option. This led to the rise of Fairchild Semiconductor , which would forever change the semiconductor industry and the field of electrical engineering thereafter.

Fairchild's Rise to Fame

After securing office space, the group took the first important step toward incorporating a business. Next, Fairchild began hiring a diverse staff in the Santa Clara Valley. This was a far cry from the close-knit group that had previously set up shop in the Grinrich family’s garage.

The young startup quickly found its footing. The team quickly created its own workspace and core components. Their task was to wind diffusion tubes, grow silicon crystals, and create manufacturing processes from scratch. The support of Hoerni (developer of the planar process), Kleiner (administrator of Fairchild), and others was indispensable to the rapid achievement of breakthroughs.

Just like that, Fairchild made the greatest contribution to engineering history: the integrated circuit. Although Texas Instruments is credited with co-discovering this innovation, Fairchild’s planar process made mass production possible. Etching every transistor, capacitor, and resistor needed to build a functional chip onto a uniform surface proved extremely useful. This consolidation led to higher yields. It also provided a blueprint for the entire industry. Handcrafting soon gave way to mass production.

The first IC introduced by Fairchild in 1960 consisted of four transistors

While semiconductor enthusiasts around the world were delighted, not everyone was thrilled with Fairchild’s progress. The perceived betrayal and success of his new competitor angered William Shockley, who dubbed the group of eight the “renegade octet.” Fairchild’s location heightened tensions—they were only 12 blocks from Shockley’s factory. Neighboring Palo Alto and Mountain View were still relatively undeveloped at the time. Each company’s presence resonated more, and these early tech companies competed for local talent.

Furthermore, Shockley Semiconductor never recovered after the eight left. Shockley's latter creation - the four-layer diode - was a technical success but never became commercially viable in the face of integrated circuits. Despite a series of small (non-profit) successes, Clevite Transistor acquired Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1960.

Fairchild revolutionized the semiconductor industry

Robert Noyce is credited with inventing the first monolithic integrated circuit (IC). Noyce improved on the insulation of Hoerni's planar process technology and discovered a method for connecting IC components, called aluminum metallization. Fairchild subsequently used Noyce and Hoerni's ideas to develop the first operational semiconductor integrated circuit.

At the same time, Texas Instruments (TI) held the patent for the hybrid integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby , which was built using the patented integration principle. TI and Fairchild engaged in a patent war, which was eventually settled in a cross-licensing agreement in 1966. Although there is still some controversy about who invented the integrated circuit, most organizations consider Kilby and Noyce to be the inventors of the IC.

Fairchild made many other contributions to the semiconductor field after its initial success. The decades following its founding were punctuated by developments both large and small:

Resistor-Transistor Logic ICs That Powered the Apollo Space Program
Charge coupled device and its 8-bit microprocessor F8
Channel F video game system, which laid the foundation for Atari and Nintendo's own games

Dissolution of Fairchild

As the years passed, Fairchild's own fortunes changed. The company ran into financial trouble in the late 1960s - facing new competition from regional startups and a resulting drop in its stock price. Beginning in 1967, the departure of Noyce and Moore hurt Fairchild. The duo formed Intel, which would become one of Fairchild's biggest competitors.

Robert Noyce (left) and Gordon Moore in front of Intel's Santa Clara office in 1970

Fairchild sold off business units that had become liabilities and continued to close locations throughout the 1970s. The company disappeared from the business spotlight when it was acquired by National Semiconductor in 1987. The $200 million deal (more than $471 million in today's dollars) brought Fairchild a new umbrella.

However, the company did grow significantly in the 90s and early 2000s through a series of company acquisitions. It captured a larger market share and updated its chip manufacturing. Unfortunately, the 2010s were a turning point for Fairchild. The company was eventually acquired and absorbed by ON Semiconductor (now Onsemi) in 2016. As a brand, it soon ceased to exist.

Fairchild revolutionized the semiconductor industry by spurring widespread adoption of silicon instead of germanium. It also helped thrust MOSFET technology into the spotlight. The company grew from eight upstarts to more than 11,000 employees.

The Lasting Legacy of Silicon Valley's Founding Fathers

While Shockley Semiconductor was a founding member of Silicon Valley’s technology, Fairchild was by far the most influential chip company. Because the company was the originator of many of the core technologies used today, it became a key starting point for employees looking to branch out.

Fairchild, and the thousands of "Fairchildren" that followed, left an undeniable mark on Silicon Valley and beyond . Intel, AMD, Xilinx, Altera, LSI Logic, and National Semiconductor are some of the famous names on this list. Noyce's own mentorship created a domino effect. His influence on Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page would eventually help shape the founding of Apple and Google.

In just 12 years since its founding, Fairchild Semiconductor has seen 31 spin-off companies

The Eight Renegades, despite their namesake scandal, have earned a good reputation in the industry. Its members have branched out into teaching, consulting, starting companies, and even forming prominent venture capital firms. For example, many Silicon Valley tech companies, including Amazon, owe their initial success to Kleiner funding. Gordon Moore The father of Moore's Law and one of the four living members of the group, he held senior positions at Intel until he was named chairman emeritus of the company in 1997. He also founded a charitable foundation with his wife.

Grinich went on to illuminate integrated circuits in academia, creating the first textbook on the subject. He also went on to found several companies specializing in RFID tags. Blank went on to found the financial company Xicor, and Hoerni founded several companies of his own, including Amelco (acquired by Microchip) and Intersil (acquired by Renesas). Eventually, Roberts and Kleiner also worked with Hoerni at Amelco.

The remaining members of the Traitorous Eight admittedly didn't accept their nickname, but they got used to it. The group even claimed it tried to reconcile with Shockley, though those attempts seem largely fruitless. However, throughout their lifetimes, their collective efforts in engineering have elevated them to legendary status among their peers and contemporaries.

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