Texas Instruments sold Bowmar the chips it needed, then out-competed it with them

Bowmar Instrument Corporation launched the Bowmar Brain in 1971, widely credited as the first mass-market handheld electronic calculator, assembling finished calculators from integrated circuit chips it purchased from outside semiconductor manufacturers rather than fabricating its own silicon. Texas Instruments, a major semiconductor maker, supplied calculator chips to Bowmar and to other assemblers throughout the early 1970s calculator boom, a period business historians later called the "Calculator Wars" as firms including Bowmar, Commodore, Rockwell and TI competed to shrink cost and size.

Texas Instruments then vertically integrated forward from chip supplier into finished calculator manufacturer, entering the same retail calculator market Bowmar competed in, but with a structural advantage Bowmar could never match: TI controlled its own chip costs and supply, while Bowmar remained dependent on outside suppliers, including TI itself, for the calculator chips its entire product line required.

Texas Instruments, the chip supplier, also sold calculators, so it could undercut Bowmar on price using its internal chip-cost edge, driving Bowmar into bankruptcy.

TI controlled chip costs internally, giving it a structural price advantage over Bowmar.

Bowmar had no alternative supplier for the critical chips, so it couldn't switch when TI prioritized its own production.

TI's dual role as supplier and competitor meant it had no incentive to ensure Bowmar's supply was reliable or cheap.

Delayed and defective chip deliveries from TI eroded Bowmar's ability to compete on price and quality.

If a supplier could enter your market, your dependency is a strategic risk; secure alternatives before it becomes a threat.

TI vertically integrated into finished calculators on its chip-cost edge; chip-dependent rival Bowmar filed for bankruptcy in February 1975. Became a widely cited case in electronics industry and semiconductor business history for the structural risk of depending on a component supplier that later enters your own finished-product market, a dynamic since observed across other component-dependent industries.