Posted on 08/16/2025 2:29:10 PM PDT by DFG
The Trump administration has launched their own 'Manhattan Project' as reports have suggested one of America's largest chipmakers could be partly nationalized.
Intel, the largest chip fabricator in the US, has been in talks with Donald Trump over a potential government stake in the company.
While the percentage stake the government is asking for has not been made public, nationalizing a company is typically reserved for national emergencies.
The government nationalized a number of banks after the 2008 financial crisis and key logistics companies during World War II.
It comes amid concerns that America relies too heavily on TSCM, a chip manufacturer in Taiwan. China has repeatedly threatened to invade the island nation.
If China were to invade, it would throttle America's ability to compete in the booming chipmaking industry that is being driven by artificial intelligence arms race.
'This feels like the Manhattan Project - or the run-up to World War II,' MIT AI computer scientist Dave Blundin said on a podcast with MIT engineer Peter Diamandis.
'It's every bit as important as the space race was, as the nuclear arms race was. Actually, it's more important.'
American companies like Nvidia and AMD design AI chips but they are fabricated in Taiwan. Intel is unique as the only major US company that both designs and fabricates its own chips.
Intel's advanced abilities to manufacture semiconductors would allow the US to give up its reliance on foreign fabrication plants (fabs), especially in Taiwan which controls more than 60 percent of the market, in order to power artificial intelligence, defense and the economy.
The talks remain ongoing and finer details continue to be made clear, but the idea would be that the US government would pay for the stake in the company, one person close to the matter told Bloomberg.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Too much fascism for me. I hate “public-private” partnerships.
Many government “companies” perform quite poorly.
Not sure I like This
While I am generally skeptical of such industrial policy initiatives, the AI race is military.
We cannot allow our enemies to get this technology before we are likewise armed.
e.g. Amtrak
“Too much fascism for me. I hate “public-private” partnerships.”
Yup. His BBB gives a bunch of taxpayer money to the most cash flush sector in the USA, big tech.
And major govt. contractors such as Boeing.
Thank you.
I hope that the money is buying convertible preferred stock the way that Buffett does it.
Five percent is hardly nationalization. We subsidize Boeing as it is. Meanwhile the PRC government owns most of their auto industry, and the EU has stakes in Airbus.
It’s the Daily Mail, so assume that only about 30% of the article is factual.
TSCM has committed an additional $165 Billion for several more massive fabrication facilities in Phoenix Arizona, to avoid Trumps tariffs. They opened a $12 Billion facility there in 2020.
I am long on TSM:NYSE (Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Ltd)
Nationalizing companies. Picking winners in the corporate world.
There is a name for that.
I forget what it is at the moment.
Also, co-opting ‘Manhattan Project’ for subsidizing an industry does a great disservice to the Herculean effort eighty years ago to complete a single wartime project (a weapon), not prop up some flailing industrial sector during peacetime.
“We cannot allow our enemies to get this technology before we are likewise armed.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><
Well... to make things even worse... : the White House just authorized Nvidia and AMD to sell AI chips to China for a 15 percent share of the revenue. After Nvidia’s CEO met with Trump in August, they got export licenses days later.
It feels like we’re selling out our tech advantage for a quick buck — about $2 billion from Nvidia’s $15 billion and AMD’s $800 million in sales. These chips will help China build smarter weapons and surveillance systems, which directly compromises America’s security. This is a true national security problem, a dangerous move. We’re treating critical technology like a bargaining chip when we should be protecting our lead in AI. This deal really needs to be stopped.
Why are we helping China’s CCP ?
Communism must be fought, not nourished.
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