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U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

cnbc.com

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Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#111

Post by MobiusHorizons »

Yoofie wrote: post #86
miohtama wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Texas Instruments and Microchip: Am I a joke to you?

As far as I know none of them manufacture anything resembling a replacement for a Xeon, which is relevant to national security because those are uses in military applications.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#112

Post by behringer »

rvba wrote: post #96
tyg13 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on who you ask. Trump himself seems to think the US is getting 10% for free. I think that's a fair assessment given that these grants were already supposed to be paid out to Intel, without any kind of equity stake promised. Worth noting that Intel is the only company that had these kinds of shenanigans pulled with their grant. Samsung, TSMC, Micron and others were granted similar funds without any kind of wit…

Getting stock in exchange of grants makes more sense than "pure" grants. This stock can later be sold, to benefit the taxpayer.

that's not a grant. That's just buying stocks.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#115

Post by Spooky23 »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #99
tobias3 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone from the Mafia comes to you and asks for a 10% share of your restaurant you better say yes.

Yes, but in this case the restaurant was already empty of customers on most evenings.

As long as there’s still cash, there’s plenty of stuff to loot.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#116

Post by ukblewis »

Yoofie wrote: post #86
miohtama wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Texas Instruments and Microchip: Am I a joke to you?

Neither of them make high performance CPUs or GPUs

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#117

Post by ecocentrik »

edot wrote: post #85
bilsbie wrote: post #51

This sounds bad. Can someone steelman this for me so I can understand the good?

If you’re going to give taxpayer money to a for-profit company, taxpayers should receive a share of the company in return. I generally don’t like 90% of the policies we’ve got going on right now, but I actually feel okay about this one.

In the rare conditions where this has been necessary in the past, US companies have been given clear terms for regaining control of those shares. I'm not seeing any buyback provisions.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#118

Post by MyOutfitIsVague »

cvoss wrote: post #70
MyOutfitIsVague wrote: post #44

> 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?

The answer is in the paragraph in between the two you quoted from. The money for the purchase has already been appropriated by Congress and awarded to Intel. The awards didn't previously have this giant string attached where Intel gives stock in return. But now they do. And it makes sense that Intel is spinning it as a generous investment from the gov't, but the gov't is spinning it as a free gift from Intel. Neither…

I had seen that, but I don't consider that "paying nothing". That's paying something. I'm also confused how it's a "grant" if it's completely transactional. That's not a string attached, that's just a purchase. So I guess it's just political spin on all sides.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#119

Post by impossiblefork »

naijaboiler wrote: post #11

i remember when this happened during an actual crisis, in 2008, republicans all over cried on the radio day after day, arguing that it's socialiasm. But now, crickets!!

For me as a vague 1920s maybe-the-SocDems, I see this as vaguely positive. A return to pragmatism from market dogmatism.

I see some of the tariff stuff and the US protectionism sort of the same way, although I don't approve, since I think the US uniquely benefits from this kind of thing due to that the dollar is such a predominant reserve currency and since I think it's badly done and will backfire, tarring what in principle be sensible policies if carefully targeted with being Trumpist.

Re: U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

#120

Post by koolba »

j4hdufd8 wrote: post #30
cuttothechase wrote: post #18

Genuine 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?

Yeah why not fund a new foundry startup?

If you think getting a couple million dollars of funding and expecting to show profitability in a few years is hard, just wait till you try it with billions and 5+ years.
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