America's Greatest Opportunities: How This Company Helped Build Silicon Valley

Fairchild Camera and Instrument had a long history in aviation, cameras and instruments with multiple long-term military contracts. And near the end of the 1950s, Fairchild stock went on a market tear after pioneering the semiconductor industry, and its share price jumped roughly 10-fold. How did it happen? It all started in 1957, when founder Sherman Fairchild funded a new…