Where we stand after 60 years of Moores Law

Date:
Sun, 19 Apr 2026 11:05:00 +0000

Description:
Moores Law has defined the pace of development in tech for over half a
century - where do we go next?

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter In April 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore published a groundbreaking article detailing what he theorized would result
in an exponential increase in the speed, power, and capability of computers
in decades to come.

Powered by increases in the number of transistors on a circuit, Moores Law,
as it came to be known, is a concept thats still the subject of intense discussions 60 years later. So how did Moore come to this conclusion? The
cogs started turning after Moore was asked to offer a prediction on how the semiconductor industry would develop over the next decade in a piece for Electronics Magazine . Article continues below You may like Chinese
scientists aim to save Moores Law by mass-growing 2D materials that 'outclass silicon' Maia 200 points to a future where laptops arent held hostage by AI Before Cerebras, there was Amdahl: How legendary US engineer was way ahead of his time with wafer-scale integration and plotted supercomputer performance for the humble PC 43 years ago Moore noted the growing volume of components, such as transistors, diodes, capacitors, and resistors, had so far doubled on an annual basis. Given progress at that stage, he anticipated that it would continue on this path for at least the next decade. The outcome of this rate of development would not only be more powerful computer chips, but crucially, cheaper chips , thereby creating a cycle of continued growth and expansion.

From careful observation of an emerging trend, Moore extrapolated that computing would dramatically increase in power and decrease in relative cost at an exponential pace, materials from Intels Tech 101 series note.

Moores Law became the golden rule for the electronics industry, and a springboard for innovation. And Moore paved the way for Intel to make the faster, smaller, more affordable transistors that drive modern tools and
toys. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Intense debate Moores Law has been the
subject of intense debate in the intervening decades since his landmark article - as the pace of growth predicted actually continued far longer than he first anticipated.

By the turn of the millennium, the number of transistors on an individual
chip increased more than 18,000 times , skyrocketing from 2,300 in 1971 to 42 million on a top-of-the-range Pentium 4 processor.

Moving deeper into the 2000s, questions began cropping up over whether this was slowing down. TechRadar noted that Moores Law was safe for at least another decade in 2012 - but by 2023 Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, a vocal long-time proponent of the concept, suggested transistors were doubling at a rate of three years , far behind what it should be. What to read next The $13,500 that changed the fate of humanity: how the term Artificial Intelligence was first coined 71 years ago but sadly without the legendary visionary soul who imagined it The AI data centers of 2036 wont be filled
with GPUs: FuriosaAIs CEO on the future of silicon 20 years ago, Apple launched a Mac that changed mini-PCs forever Where do we go from here? The days of exponential growth appear to be behind us, but Moores Law nonetheless remains a key focus for the industry in terms of the pace of development.

Moreover, the term itself isnt necessarily restricted to chip development, with industry figures in other key areas drawing upon this concept to assess the pace of development in their respective fields.

Take generative AI, for example. In February 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman specifically pointed to Moores Law when discussing the pace of development in the AI industry.

Significant price drops associated with AI use since the advent of the generative AI boom in late 2022, combined with more powerful models, bears similarities to the concept championed by Moore in the mid-1960s.

Of course, Altman was basing this on the cost of context tokens, which he noted had fallen around 10x over a yearly basis. Between 2023 to mid-2024, ChatGPTs price per token dropped by around 150x. The death of Moores law, and why its actually a good thing for games



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