Posted on 03/22/2024 7:43:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Wednesday, while campaigning in Arizona, Joe Biden revealed that the government reached an $8.5 billion deal with U.S. chipmaker Intel to build four plants in the U.S. that will build advanced computer chips.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the deal would enable the U.S. to manufacture 20% of the world's most advanced computer chips by 2030 and create 30,000 jobs.
“Failure is not an option — leading-edge chips are the core of our innovation system, especially when it comes to advances in artificial intelligence and our military systems,” Raimondo told reporters. “We can’t just design chips. We have to make them in America.”
Part of the corporate welfare package includes $11 billion in loans for Intel, making the package of government handouts worth more than $19 billion. Intel, as you can well imagine, is pleased as punch.
“Today is a defining moment for the U.S. and Intel as we work to power the next great chapter of American semiconductor innovation,” said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger on the company's website. “AI is supercharging the digital revolution and everything digital needs semiconductors. CHIPS Act support will help to ensure that Intel and the U.S. stay at the forefront of the AI era as we build a resilient and sustainable semiconductor supply chain to power our nation’s future.”
As Biden takes credit for the massive corporate giveaway and Intel crows about its good fortune, did anyone ask if all this was necessary? Apparently not. And looking at the fine print would have told Biden and Raimondo that each of those 30,000 jobs was going to cost $283,000 in taxpayer money.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
The math gets even worse if you read Intel's press release, which clarifies that 20,000 of those 30,000 new jobs will be temporary construction jobs connected to building new facilities in four states.
But the real kicker is the fact that Intel was already planning to build those facilities—which makes sense, because there is huge demand for semiconductors and the market is growing increasingly concerned about the fact that so many of the world's high-end chips are made in Taiwan and are thus under constant threat from China. According to Intel, the federal government's handout "supports Intel's previously announced plans to invest more than $100 billion in the U.S. over five years to expand U.S. chipmaking capacity."
Intel is a hugely successful, massively rich corporation. They don't need $8.5 billion in taxpayer money to build four plants that they were going to build anyway! They were going to spend $100 billion building plants.
And you thought federal elections weren't paid for with taxpayer dollars. This isn't the end of it either.
Unfortunately, this is likely only the start. The Biden administration still has $39 billion in CHIPS Act subsidies to distribute in the coming months, according to The New York Times. Even before that money is out the door—and long before anyone has had a chance to measure how effective the spending was—administration officials and top executives at chip-making companies agree that Congress should pass another round of subsidies.
Did congress appropriate that money so Biden could give it away?
Soviet style “industrial development” and likely to fair as badly.
Corporatism, a relative for classical fascism. And quite “soviet.” Courtesy of Democrats and some RINOs.
This will be like what Obama did for GeneralMotors. They will own it and control the product — like a spy chip in each new product.
The federal loan part presumably will be paid back.
It is actually at the behest of the NSA that tech and communications companies are kept in the fold.
Every country uses it government and intelligence to monetize as normal corporations actual Government assets.
I am of two minds on this...
Yeah, as a supporter of capitalism and free markets, government handouts to anyone rub me the wrong way. The only time that “government spending” may be acceptable is during wartime, which brings me to the flip side.
We are on the brink of war with China, if not actually in a non-shooting war. They want Taiwan...badly...and if they get it, they will control the world’s chip market. We MUST get our chip manufacturing back to our shores FAST.
We have an Intel plant here in town. I can look out the front window of my business and see it over the rooftops. I have spoken to the number two guy at the plant about the future of chip manufacturing in the US. Right now, if the supply from Taiwan was cut off, ALL manufacturing in the USA would halt within six months. If the item being manufactured does use chips, the manufacturing process does. Transportation would be affected. This would impact food and energy distribution. It was pretty much a doomsday scenario.
I would probably feel better if it were a Republican administration overseeing this program, but we have to play the cards we are dealt and this really can’t wait.
No, somehow Joe’s cronies needed that money so that the “Big Guy” could get his 10%.
<> Intel announced that it’s putting the brakes on its Columbus factory. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has pushed back production at its second Arizona foundry. The remaining major chipmaker, Samsung, just delayed its first Texas fab.<>
<>Commentators have noted that CHIPS and Science Act money has been sluggish. What they haven’t noticed is that it’s because the CHIPS Act is so loaded with DEI pork that it can’t move.<>
<>The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups For instance, chipmakers have to make sure they hire plenty of female construction workers, even though less than 10 percent of U.S. construction workers are women. They also have to ensure childcare for the female construction workers and engineers who don’t exist yet. They have to remove degree requirements and set “diverse hiring slate policies,” which sounds like code for quotas. They must create plans to do all this with “close and ongoing coordination with on-the-ground stakeholders.”<>
<>In short, the world’s best chipmakers are tired of being pawns in the CHIPS Act’s political games. They’ve quietly given up on America.<>
D.E.I. = Didn’t Earn It.
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