Traitorous Eight

The traitorous eight are eight men who left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in 1957, due to a conflict with William Shockley, to form Fairchild Semiconductor. Shockley described the incident as a "betrayal", and it is unclear who coined the term. The eight are Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce and Sheldon Roberts. They have sometimes been called "Fairchildren", although this word might also refer to Fairchild alumni or spin-off companies in Silicon Valley.

In 1956, Shockley formed a team of talented young professionals to develop and produce new semiconductor devices. Being a Nobel Laureate in Physics and an experienced researcher and teacher, he failed as a manager; he chose, as it turned out, a hopeless strategy and created an intolerable working atmosphere. In March 1957, those who disagreed with Shockley began negotiations to form a separate company, and in August reached an agreement with Sherman Fairchild. The formal break occurred on September 18, 1957. The newly founded Fairchild Semiconductor soon grew into a leader of the semiconductor industry; in 1960 it became an incubator of Silicon Valley, and was directly or indirectly involved in the creation of dozens of corporations such as AMD, Intel and Zilog.