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American engineer and co-founder of Intel Corporation (1929–2023) who proposed Moore's law, which makes the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years. TLS signed “Gordon,” one page, 8.5 x 11, Intel Corporation letterhead, December 2, 1976. Letter to Robert L. Luce, a Silicon Valley semiconductor engineer and inventor. In full: "It was nice to hear from you. I am seeing that your resume gets considered by the most likely places here at Intel. I hope we are able to find a place that offers adequate opportunity. We will get in touch with you in a week or so, after I have had a chance to examine the possibilities. I'm afraid that you have hit us at a relatively weak time in the semiconductor industry's history, but these come and go with increasing rapidity. We are still hiring for a few key spots and hope we will be able to find or make one that you will consider appropriate." In fine condition, with some light creasing in the top blank area. Accompanied by a photocopy of Luce's letter to Moore, outlining his experience in the field.
Moore’s comment that Luce had approached Intel at “a relatively weak time in the semiconductor industry’s history” captures a fascinating moment of transition: the cyclical softness of the mid-1970s came just as the microcomputer revolution was beginning to gather force. Intel’s 8080 microprocessor powered the MITS Altair 8800, the hobbyist machine that helped ignite the personal-computing movement after its celebrated 1975 debut, and 1976 saw the arrival of the Apple I—early proof that the microprocessor was moving computing power out of corporate and academic centers and onto the desktop.
In retrospect, this letter is especially evocative: written during a temporary lull, it precedes the explosive rise of personal computers, mobile devices, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence—all built upon the relentless scaling of semiconductor technology. From Intel’s early microprocessors to today’s AI accelerators, advanced memory, and trillion-dollar-scale chip economy, the industry Moore helped define has become one of the central engines of modern civilization. Contemporary forecasts now place global semiconductor sales near or above the $1 trillion threshold in 2026, driven heavily by AI infrastructure, underscoring how prophetic Moore’s career-long vision of compounding technological progress proved to be.
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