IBM: Hey Joe, we make chips, too. How about some of 'em subsidies?

President Joe Biden popped by IBM's latest chipmaking venture this week as Big Blue clearly hopes to keep the White House close and bag a slice of those government semiconductor manufacturing subsidies. The American leader had been invited to the IT giant's campus in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he unveiled a $20 billion …

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former employee of 20 years

I'd rather see my tax dollar go toward researching silly walks, or literally anything else.

[Snowy]

Re: As a former employee of 20 years

Never mind the research feel the weight of that envelop of colour.

[vtcodger]

Memory problems

Perhaps I misremember, but didn't IBM pay Global Foundries a tidy sum ($2B?) a couple of years ago to take IBM's two major fabs off its hands? Doesn't sound to me like a company that wants/plans to be at the leading edge of chip making in America.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Memory problems

Yes this funding is for their new cutting edge 2mm fab

[imanidiot]

Re: Memory problems

One can do a lot of R&D without owning the actual production fab equipment though. I've been to their research fab in Albany and it's a pretty impressive facility. Apparently IBM simply wasn't making enough chips for it to be worth running their own fab lines and it made financial sense to sell the fabs and pay someone else for part time use of them instead of having to pay for a fab that wasn't doing anything part of the time..

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Memory problems

Yes that's what most companies found and is why TSMC exists. But mist of the fabless companies don't then go to the government demanding hand outs because of a need for more fabs

[Fruit and Nutcase]

IBM: Hey Joe, we would like the age of our workforce

to be about 1/3 of your age!

[Korev]

Re: IBM: Hey Joe, we would like the age of our workforce

"Hello President Dinobaby"

[cjcox]

If anyone can figure out how to take "free money" from our gov't and spend it in China, it's IBM

IBM is the master of deception.

[Pascal Monett]

And it continues

Once again, billions of dollars are being earmarked for companies that already make tens of billions of dollars a year, while education and healthcare are left in the doldrums.

I'm starting to get fed up with that.

[MachDiamond]

Re: And it continues

"while education and healthcare are left in the doldrums."

Don't forget the unfilled potholes, rusty old bridges and the increasing cost of a college education.

I was just looking at the costs of going to the local community college to learn a new thing or two and my jaw dropped. It's less expensive for general education courses rather than paying a Uni for the exact same, but good grief! I was really looking at being able to take a few courses and cozy up to the profs to be able to use some facilities I don't have at home and be able to pick a few minds. It would also mean I'd officially be a "student" and could get student discounts for things. As it is, the cost is too much.

[trindflo]

Re: And it continues

It is the U.S. free enterprise over government issue. I'll happily champion free enterprise, but not when it is essentially corporate welfare.

It seems to me that if the government needs to step in to make chip manufacturing happen that the government should run the facility. Why shouldn't the taxpayer see a return on the investment?

[MachDiamond]

Re: And it continues

"It seems to me that if the government needs to step in to make chip manufacturing happen that the government should run the facility. Why shouldn't the taxpayer see a return on the investment?"

I'm trying to make sense of those two sentences. I've never found that government anything has had any sort of direct payback. Anything that should be in the private sector needs to be firmly in the private sector.