A timely selection, Chris Williams’ ‘Chip War’ from Simon & Schuster wins the £30,000 FT Book of the Year Award in London.

The 18th edition of the UK-based Business Book of the Year Award from the Financial Times tonight (May 5) has announced Chris Miller its winner for his Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology (Simon & Schuster UK, Simon & Schuster/Scriber USA).

Miller teaches international history at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and the Jeane Kilpatrick visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute as well as the Eurasia Research Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The timing of his win with this particular book—he has published four books—certainly suggests a news cycle that might boost sales. Joe Biden and Gina Raimondo, the American commerce secretary, on Tuesday (December 6) are to attend a tool-in ceremony for the new plant in Arizona built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC, as the White House presses its case to advance chip production in the States.

Miller’s book is described as explicating “the long supply chains that make up the complex and increasingly fragile network that builds and assembles semiconductors, and examines the implications of our global dependency on a few vast manufacturers.”

Carrying a purse of £30,000 (US$36,584) for its winner, the program also hands each of the remaining five shortlistees £10,000 (US$12,194).

As we mentioned in our reportage on the program’s shortlist in September, the selection of a winner in this competition is meant to honor “a book which provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.”

The award program was hosted tonight by the Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London with the Baroness Shafik giving a keynote address.

Jurors chaired by Khalef this time are:

• Mimi Alemayehou, Mastercard
• Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation
• Mohamed El-Erian, Queens’ College, Cambridge University
• Herminia Ibarra, London Business School
• James Kondo, International House of Japan
• Randall Kroszner, University of Chicago
• Shriti Vadera, Prudential Plc and Royal Shakespeare Company

In another award given this evening, Ariel of Fauconberg was given £15,000 (US$18,303) for a book proposal titled Before the Dawn: Racing to Net Zero on the Front Lines of Climate Innovation. Jurors for that one were:

• Isabel Fernandez-Mateo, London Business School
• Katherine Garrett-Cox CBE, GIB Asset Management
• Jonathan Hillman, winner of the 2019 Bracken Bower Prize for The Digital Silk Road
• Rik Ubhi, Bonnier Books UK/Heligo Books