Did Lip Bu Tan initially try to say no to this? You'd kind of expect him to say no. Is that why Trump tried to oust him? Is Trump trying to oust him the reason Intel are now accepting this?
U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
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Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#102> "The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars,” President Trump wrote" This wasn't any sort of investment, it was blackmail. No corporation in the country would voluntarily give up 10% of the company to the federal government - for free - unless overtly threatened. The Trump administration is hoping that by exerting control over Intel, it can be…
> The Trump administration is hoping that by exerting control over Intel, it can begin dictating conditions to Intel's customers, thus the tech community at large.
This was my TDS-reaction as well. But, honestly, I feel like the "tech community" has moved on from Intel/x86 anyway. Or, at the very least, this move will accelerate that migration. ARM for the win!
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#103Genuine question- How does Govt picking winners and losers going to help? Intel is no Too big to fail Bank. Why save Intel of all chip manufacturers? Wouldnt it be like 25 years too late, with Intel and its heydays !? Would Govt now ensure parity by investing in "marquee" entities across different industrial domains?
There is only 1 winner and 1 loser: Intel. It's the only chip manufacturer "left" in the US. The argument is national security: the US expects China to invade Taiwan and this will kill TSMC in the process. Whether this will happen or not can be debated, but this is what the government expects.
> the US expects China to invade Taiwan and this will kill TSMC in the process.
Would it though? The TSMC foundries are pretty much in every continent. Are they just going to stop operating if this happens? Because that seems akin to killing a golden goose.
Also what is up with Global Foundries? I don’t hear a peep about them.
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#104Why is this a surprise? Who do you expect to design and make chips for national security-level programs in the future wars when Taiwan is a deep crater? Every serious nation state has an arch design house and a fab. It need not be cutting edge (most militry stuff is a few gens old), but it needs to exist. Russia has Elbrus. China has Looonsoon and SMIC. Europe has ARM but is a bit behind here fab-wise. However, STMic…
Taiwan.
The thing is, even though the US is trying to create an alternative for itself, once Taiwan is in danger, this would for the EU mean a total US microchip monopoly, so radical action becomes necessary.
If I were a political leader in the EU I would consider nuclear weapons sharing with Taiwan if that happened.
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah terrible position to be when your own government is investing in your competitors' company using your own tax dollars. As a software engineer, this isn't an entirely new concept.
I think all three of those other companies are also getting CHIPS-act subsidies?
I suppose it could be worse. Still, now the US has a vested interest in seeing Intel crush AMD and others.
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#106> the government made an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, purchasing 433.3 million shares at a price of $20.47 per share, giving it a 10% stake in the company > The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars I don't understand. Can somebody explain to me how the government made an investement, bought shares, but paid nothing?
They're nationalizing it
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#107This is worse than I expected. They're apparently putting in no new money and retroactively demanding stock in exchange for grants that were already awarded. If Intel can't afford to build 14A and we're putting in no net new money... then Intel still can't afford 14A? Unless they were lying.
Maybe it’s more about affording 641A
... what would a chip version of 641A even look like?
If it involves (a) identifying / filtering stuff they want to spy on (b) sending it back to one of the intelligence agencies, it seems like both would be hard to do well and secretly ... right?
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#108I give you 3 months before the US government takes 10% of Google, Microsoft, Amazon/AWS, Nvidia, AMD and Apple.
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#109This feels like another signal that the U.S. as an economic superpower is transitioning into something else.
I guess this is kind of like an auto or bank bailout, but is there something to bail out, or are they just gaining ownership of a doomed (in the classical sense) corporation?
Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel
#110I am expecting shareholders to be very upset. If, as Matt Levine likes to say, everything is securities fraud then this is going to court one way or another.