Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and creator of Moore’s Law, has died

Gordon Moore has died at the age of 94. He founded Intel in 1968 with Robert Noyce, where he remained until 2006. In addition, he famously predicted that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double every year, also known as Moore’s Law.

Before Gordon Moore started Intel in 1968 and coined Moore’s Law in 1965, he and seven other former employees of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory founded the semiconductor company Fairchild Semiconductor. That company became a pioneer in the development of integrated circuits and a breeding ground for the creation of other tech companies, including AMD.

While working for that company, he made a prediction that would become known as Moore’s Law. He expected the number of transistors on chips to double every year. Ten years later he revised his prediction, making it ‘every two years’. The law lasted for decades, although it has been declared dead several times in recent years.

In July 1968, he and Fairchild colleague Robert Noyce founded the Integrated Electronics Company, abbreviated as Intel, to focus on the production of memory for semiconductors. Later the focus shifted to making microprocessors. He served as executive vice president until 1975. That year, Noyce left the company, leaving Moore as president. He retained this position until 1979, when he was named chairman and CEO. Eight years later he resigned as CEO, but remained chairman until 1997. He then stepped down as chairman emeritus, a position he held until his retirement in 2006.

According to Intel Moore has been involved in philanthropy in recent years as chairman of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. This foundation focuses, among other things, on environmental conservation, scientific research and improvements in patient care. The tech pioneer is said to have died peacefully at his home in Hawaii on Friday. A cause of death has not been announced.