The "Traitorous Eight" left which company to found Fairchild Semiconductor?

The “Traitorous Eight” left Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory to found Fairchild Semiconductor.

The eight scientists were Julius Blank, Victor Grinich, Jean Hoerni, Eugene Kleiner, Jay Last, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, and Sheldon Roberts. They had been recruited by Nobel laureate William Shockley to work at his Mountain View laboratory, founded in 1955 and funded by Beckman Instruments.

The group became frustrated with Shockley’s authoritarian management and shifting research priorities. After efforts to have him replaced failed, all eight resigned on September 18, 1957. They secured backing from businessman and investor Arthur Rock, who introduced them to Sherman Fairchild of Fairchild Camera and Instrument.

Fairchild Semiconductor was formed that same month and quickly became a semiconductor powerhouse. Its employees and alumni later founded or helped build companies including Intel, AMD, and Intersil. Shockley reportedly called the departing scientists “traitorous,” a label that became one of Silicon Valley’s most famous origin stories.