Who We Are

Mike O'Brien, Principal, SemiAdvisors

Mike founded SemiAdvisors (SEMIADVISORS LLC) to continue advancing the CHIPS and Science Act mission and drive long-term competitive advantage in U.S. manufacturing and R&D. This follows nearly three years under two administrations as Senior Director at the U.S. Department of Commerce CHIPS Program Office (CPO).

An early member of CPO, he helped recruit other leaders and shaped portfolio priorities, operational processes, and application review criteria. He led cross-functional teams negotiating $7.5B in manufacturing and R&D awards across leading-edge memory, logic, advanced packaging, compound semiconductors, equipment, materials, and next-generation R&D programs, catalyzing more than $200B in private investment. He represented CHIPS at SemiCon, SIA, GOMAC, NDIA, and the Potomac Institute, and served through December 2025 to maintain continuity and support the program's transition to new leadership.

Prior to Commerce, Mike spent nearly two decades at Synopsys, where he served as Vice President, Senior Director, and Global Account Director. He created a vertical focused on Aerospace and Government, recruited the team, and led it to drive significant annual run rate growth. This included closing some $200M in OTA contracts with DARPA, IARPA, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, BAE, and others in superconducting computing, digital twins, hardware security, and design enablement. He also helped establish Synopsys's initial government affairs activity and led sustained ecosystem partnerships with companies like IBM and Arm Holdings.

Earlier, at Cadence Design Systems, Mike was a senior leader of Tality, the outsourced design services subsidiary, where he built a consulting practice and closed major outsourcing agreements with Unisys, Bell Labs Design Automation, IBM, Nokia, and Ingersoll Rand. His career also includes startup and vertical-creation roles at Pure Software, a pre-IPO software development tools company later acquired by IBM, and Wang Laboratories.

Beyond his own experience, Mike brings clients access to a curated network of consulting, advisory, and legal professionals with complementary expertise across semiconductor technology, government affairs, investment, and transactions. SemiAdvisors can draw on these relationships to bring clients integrated, multi-disciplinary support when an engagement calls for it.

Mike holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard College and completed executive programs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has a TS/SCI security clearance eligible for reinstatement and is an IEEE member. SemiAdvisors is based in New Jersey.