Trump made Intel an offer it couldn't refuse We know US President Donald Trump isn't a fan of the US Chips Act. But, turn a government handout into a tit-for-tat transaction and the self described "master dealmaker" is singing a different tune. And so, in a desperate attempt to cut through the red tape, new-ish Intel CEO Lip Bu Tan on Friday conceded 10 percent of his …
TSMC doesn't so much "compete" with Intel as produce all the *other* chips that let us build real, working, devices with a couple of Intel blobs somewhere in the mix. Intel needs TSMC! Ditto other RAM suppliers...
The fact that some TSMC-made items may also sub for those Intel bits doesn't remove Intel's dependency, it merely(!) means that they aren't co-dependent and TSMC can happily afford to watch Intel slide away.
It's actually not "socialism", because that entails group ownership.
What is actually is, is "proto-Fascism" - where the government takes control and / or manages private businesses to forward their political objectives. Add in suppression of alternate viewpoints, use of military for internal "national security" reasons, scapegoating of minority populations with forced relocations, "national pride" based on ethnic and/or religious backgrounds, overt nationalism...
I'll just leave the rest to you.
Agreed, but to me the intent of that group ownership is to exert control and set policies benefitting the greater society; it is not ownership for economic gains (IE Profits).
I find it's useful to see "POTUS" as a conspiracy of, not dunces, but corrupt individuals, banding together to feast off the corpse of Ameerican society, and feed their private ambitions.
My favourite term so far is "Kleptocracy".
Now the guy's got The Donald as a partner. Any problems, he goes to The Donald.
Trouble with foreign competition, deliveries, Intel can call The Donald. But now the guy's gotta come up with The Donald's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? F#ck you, pay me. Oh you had a fire? F#ck you, pay me. Die shrinkage problems? F#ck you, pay me.
And it's as likely to have the same happy ending as the Scorsese film.
So Intel isn’t just “Chipzilla” anymore, it’s officially “Chipzavod.” Trump vel Krasnov manages to turn the one American company still making leading-edge silicon into a state-backed enterprise with all the subtlety of a Moscow mob boss. Three-quarters of Intel’s revenues come from abroad, and now every deal is hostage to the mood swings of a man whose trade policy depends on what he had for breakfast. If you were in the Kremlin, you couldn’t script it better: America’s crown-jewel fabber undermined abroad, alienated partners, and plenty of propaganda fodder about the US government shaking down its own champions. Exhibit 082525C in the case that Trump is less “master dealmaker” and more “asset with benefits.”
At least the story doesn’t mention Epstein - which must be a relief for him.
"... Imagine what it'd feel like losing a massive chip deal to AMD not because they're better, but out of spite for the president."
All I know is that now that Trump has his grubby mitts in Intel, my next CPU (and maybe graphics card) are going to be Red Team. Trump *does* have that effect on people.
*cough*
Yes, the government should be invested in the corporations .......... said not one single republican ever.
Considering rather a large number of long term investment organisations have ben leaning down their Intel investments of late it seems a very trumpian decision.
That's the problem. 45+ years of the Scam and the stupid, gullible, mid-America rubes haven't caught on to the fraud yet. They'll keep voting against themselves because, after all, you're just a temporarily out-of-luck multi-millionaire...and we wouldn't want to hurt you sometime in the future, would we??
Now he is a shareholder, Trump can send in a hatchet man, someone who really knows how to safely trim away the loss-making fat and stop pointless expenditure.
Hmm, DT still doesn't like EM (this week, AFAIK) - does Big Balls have the spare time to take on Intel?
Like it or not, for the taxpayers, a handout with a 10% slice is much better than just a handout. As for all the other tariff tantrums - those are working too. If a vendor doesn’t have a monopoly of sorts, they cannot just raise prices - they have to eat most or all of the tariffs and adjust their prices the world over to compensate. Globalists with mega factories do not like this and are screaming their heads off - that really shows how well it works.
A couple of hundred years of trade policy – even under Trump's hero and fellow tariff-lover McKinley – suggest otherwise. Tariffs are paid by importers and ultimately by consumers. They are, therefore, a tax that favour protectionism. This means higher prices and lower quality from a coddled industry. In addition, Trump's approach has led to over 150 different tariff regimes in this year alone. Do you think any customs officer really knows what rate to apply? Doesn't matter, because importers are being asked to apply tariffs themselves…
And then there is the whole idea of whether Trump is able to pass so many tariffs? Until the US Supreme Court decides, companies will continue to hold off investments.
As for 10% of the basket case which Intel has become, how well do you think that's going to go? I reckon the $ 10 billion will only be the start and soon someone like Lutnick or Navarro will be on the board to "help"!
And the point is? Yes, there are a lot of chips that aren't made by TSMC. They usually aren't very fast because they don't need to be. Which means that, when you need the fast ones, there are not tens of thousands of places that make those. If you have decided that access to fast chips is critical to your national security, then the existence of manufacturers of slow ones is irrelevant. If you have decided that access to fast chips is unimportant, it's also irrelevant. If you've decided that access to slow chips is also important, only then does it become relevant, in which case you would try to make sure more IC manufacturers were based in the US.
No one seems to have noticed that this "transfer of ownership" appears to be a gift to the US Government. It's not a stock swap with another company. It's not in exchange for a purchase of goods. It's an outright gift. Were the shareholders consulted on this dilution of their shares?
As has been noted in the article and by many commentors, it's blackmail. It's a gift in exchange for the Government passing on the federal grant that has already been agreed on by a legal instrument. I'd not be surprised if some shareholders decided to sue over this.
to vote on this demand by Trump?
Queue sagebrush blowing down Penn Avenue, DC.
Trump says give and the company says 'Yessir.... No problem'.
My guess is that he'll soon be demanding a tithe from Apple, MS, Oracle and Tesla very soon. None of them would dare say no.
