Intel's Money Woes Throw Biden Team's Chip Strategy Into Turmoil (bloomberg.com) 109
The Biden-Harris administration's big bet on Intel to lead a US chipmaking renaissance is in grave trouble as a result of the company's mounting financial struggles, creating a potentially damaging setback for the country's most ambitious industrial policy in decades. From a report: Five months after the president traveled to Arizona to unveil a potential $20 billion package of incentives alongside Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger, there are growing questions around when -- or if -- Intel will get its hands on that money. Intel's woes also may jeopardize the government's ability to reach its policy goals, which include establishing a secure supply of cutting-edge chips for the Pentagon and making a fifth of the world's advanced processors by 2030.
Intel is mired in a sales slump worse than anticipated and hemorrhaging cash, forcing its board to consider increasingly drastic actions -- including possibly splitting off its manufacturing division or paring back global factory plans, Bloomberg reported last week. That threatens to further complicate its quest for government funding, at a time when Intel desperately needs the help. The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones -- and after significant due diligence. That process, which applies to all Chips Act winners, has been clear from the outset, and aims to ensure that companies only get taxpayer dollars once they've actually delivered on their promises. Intel, like other potential recipients, hasn't received any money yet.
Intel is mired in a sales slump worse than anticipated and hemorrhaging cash, forcing its board to consider increasingly drastic actions -- including possibly splitting off its manufacturing division or paring back global factory plans, Bloomberg reported last week. That threatens to further complicate its quest for government funding, at a time when Intel desperately needs the help. The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones -- and after significant due diligence. That process, which applies to all Chips Act winners, has been clear from the outset, and aims to ensure that companies only get taxpayer dollars once they've actually delivered on their promises. Intel, like other potential recipients, hasn't received any money yet.
Sigh! (Score:1)
I guess they should have backed AMD instead.
Re: Sigh! (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Well, that's a bummer, man.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Global Foundries (the former manufacturing division of AMD) is part of the CHIPS act.
Re: (Score:2)
That's a relief. I didn't get that gist from the article.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I guess that someone needs to call up TSMC and ask them if they want a big grant to set up a new fab in the US?
Re: (Score:3)
To the best of my knowledge, that has already happened and it was some time last year.
Re: (Score:2)
that has already happened. well there have been numerous delays, including US unions saying they should do all the work, while tsmc wants to bring in their people to get it done with their expertise, but they can't get the visas approved. so it's been a shit show.
Re:Sigh! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I guess that someone needs to call up TSMC and ask them if they want a big grant to set up a new fab in the US?
I'd think it would be a smart move, and would disincentivize China from wanting to invade and occupy Taiwan. Bring TSMC talent here, where they can be better protected.
Re: (Score:2)
They won't be better protected here unless we get single payer healthcare, and that isn't happening for probably a decade or two.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It was a fairly easy-to-understand statement that they likely get better health care (protection) in Taiwan than they would get health insurance and bureaucratic runaround here.
Currently typing this while my wife is on the phone trying to get our insurance company to pay for her mammogram from LAST YEAR that they are still contesting, saying that even though she went to an "in-network" provider and facility listed on the insurance company's directory, they say that a radiologist that we didn't ask for nor
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
hence my confusion at what amounted to a nonsequitor from you
I didn't post the original comment. Seems you may want to brush up on some reading skills, and do a little less assumption.
Re: (Score:2)
They won't be better protected here unless we get single payer healthcare, and that isn't happening for probably a decade or two.
I believe this is what we refer to as a "single issue voter." =)
Re: (Score:2)
It's actually worse for Taiwan than the previous situation where in case of invasion half the world would be saying "Where's my chips" while glaring hatefully at China. Just for example, there's some bad blood between Russia and Ukraine, but Russia still pays Ukraine to transport their oil through the pipeline, then both spend that money on killing each other.
Business is business, a deal is a deal, gotta keep the neighbors happy.
But, chip manufacturing was expanding anyways, so it might as well be to the US
Re: (Score:2)
It's actually worse for Taiwan than the previous situation where in case of invasion half the world would be saying "Where's my chips" while glaring hatefully at China. Just for example, there's some bad blood between Russia and Ukraine, but Russia still pays Ukraine to transport their oil through the pipeline, then both spend that money on killing each other.
Business is business, a deal is a deal, gotta keep the neighbors happy.
But, chip manufacturing was expanding anyways, so it might as well be to the US.
Considering that modern warfighting capability is leveraged heavily on having a technology advantage, I imagine they would be doing more than looking angrily at China. Invasion of Taiwan would decimate the military capabilities of the Unites States for instance because of our over-reliance on "smart" weaponry. We would have next to no choice than to go to war, with all options on the table.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I think chips being vital to national security is a big part of this.
Also, I'd say it's likely the US has a vast under-reliance on smart weaponry, pointing vaguely in the direction of drone warfare and the cost spent to shoot them down.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I think chips being vital to national security is a big part of this.
Also, I'd say it's likely the US has a vast under-reliance on smart weaponry, pointing vaguely in the direction of drone warfare and the cost spent to shoot them down.
I'm more referencing the usage of smart bombs and cruise missiles, also things like the modern fighter-bomber aircraft like the F-35 and F-22 which are highly computerized.
Re: (Score:2)
repeating my previous comment. that has already happened. well there have been numerous delays, including US unions saying they should do all the work, while tsmc wants to bring in their people to get it done with their expertise, but they can't get the visas approved. so it's been a shit show.
Re: (Score:1)
There's a LOT of that written into that Act.....
Re: (Score:2)
Do remember that ANY company that wants to take that Chips Act money must ALSO conform to the quotas for DEI, minority and female hires and ownership with subs, etc.
There's a LOT of that written into that Act.....
You mean there’s a lot of regret written into an Act that probably isn’t worth chasing funding. Not in ann industry where manufacturing standards mean employees have to actually be competent. Not merely look like they might be.
Re:Sigh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
A major point of the project was to have chips fabbed by a US company. Our military and defense/security agencies would probably be safer if they were using chips designed and fabbed exclusively by US companies. Then again, if they had required that for all purchases within those agencies decades ago, there would have been fewer incentives to abandon chip fabs in the US. But who could have seen that coming, right?!
I don't actually know when it changed and am too lazy to look currently, but the DoD did in fact require second-sources and sometimes third sources for products which were going into military hardware. That's why AMD exists as it does now, they were a second-source to Intel.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess they should have backed AMD instead.
It’s quite amazing to me that a company that was directly targeted for billions in Government funding, is suddenly in dire straights afterwards. Which of course demands even MOAR Government funding. Because the billions they didn’t have before, wasn’t enough.
The CHIPS Act was signed in 2022. There’s an acceptable amount of Government-grade slop and inefficiency we’ve come to expect, but if that money hasn’t been distributed by now, then the Act was nothing more than a
Re:Sigh! (Score:4, Informative)
Firstly, is MOAR some new acronym?
Secondly, the article stated
Which would have addressed your "concerns" if you had bothered to even read the summary.
Re: (Score:3)
Firstly, is MOAR some new acronym?
It's mid 2000s lolcat speak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I think Intel is the one screwing up here. Government stimulus shouldn't just be handouts with no strings attached.
What blows me away is enormous expensive of buying, supposedly, every one of the most expensive high-NA EUV lithography machines this year with no way to put them to immediate use. Admittedly, that's probably only a few machines but, still, you'd think the finances would be in order to take such a big plunge that won't even begin to pay itself back for many years to come. Maybe just one at a
Re: (Score:2)
I guess they should have backed AMD instead.
It’s quite amazing to me that a company that was directly targeted for billions in Government funding, is suddenly in dire straights afterwards. Which of course demands even MOAR Government funding. Because the billions they didn’t have before, wasn’t enough.
The CHIPS Act was signed in 2022. There’s an acceptable amount of Government-grade slop and inefficiency we’ve come to expect, but if that money hasn’t been distributed by now, then the Act was nothing more than a bullshit political move full of lies. Pathetic.
I don't know. In this particular case, it's an odd pack of lies. The government promised to hand billions to private industry with the stated goal of bringing manufacturing back to the US. Traditionally, these handouts are simply that: a handout. In a weird way, the fact they managed to *NOT* follow through means we didn't see billions of taxpayer dollars shoveled into executive pockets for no reason. So, uh, I guess our government finally managed to do something sorta semi-fiscally responsible. Granted, it
Re:Sigh! (Score:4, Insightful)
The CHIPS Act was signed in 2022... if that money hasn’t been distributed by now, then the Act was nothing more than a bullshit political move full of lies.
Making distribution contingent on hitting certain milestones is just good procurement. If, for example, the bill provides $10bn for building the fab $10bn for subsidized production due to start in ~2030, make them show they can actually build the thing before handing over the production cash.
I have no idea how the CHIPS act is structured or how well it's being managed, but I can say that "was the full subsidy distributed within 2 years" is a terrible metric for "is this program effective." For something that meant to pay dividends for a decade+, I'd say it'd be a sign of the exact opposite.
Re: (Score:2)
It's structured, essentially as rebates. From the summary:
The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones -- and after significant due diligence. That process, which applies to all Chips Act winners, has been clear from the outset, and aims to ensure that companies only get taxpayer dollars once they've actually delivered on their promises. Intel, like other potential recipients, hasn't received any money yet.
If Intel doesn't make their milestones, they get the square root of jack shit. That's why they are in a financial pickle right now - they need to finish building their shit and getting it operational in order to get repaid the up-front capital.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It was $7.5 billion dollars directly given to a handful of corps in 2021 by the Biden Admin to build 500,000 EV charging stations.
As of July 2024, only 10 stations (0.002%) have been built with this stimulus, and 3 aren't even functional at present!!!!
https://www.americanenergyalli... [americanen...liance.org]
So only 7 are functional... That's $1.035 billion per charging station!!! It's total grift!
Re: (Score:3)
It was $7.5 billion dollars directly given to a handful of corps in 2021 by the Biden Admin to build 500,000 EV charging stations.
As of July 2024, only 10 stations (0.002%) have been built with this stimulus, and 3 aren't even functional at present!!!!
https://www.americanenergyalli... [americanen...liance.org]
So only 7 are functional... That's $1.035 billion per charging station!!! It's total grift!
I weep for my tax dollars. Some days I wonder if I could give up a couple expensive hobbies and just live on welfare, since the government seems to want that out of me anyway by the way they continuously take more of what I earn and destroy the value in what is left.
Re: (Score:3)
The trend is that you don't know what you're talking about on either piece of legislation.
EV charging stations are block grants to state departments of transportation for planning, building chargers. If you have a problem with the speed, go talk to your state transportation department about that.
This particular bit of legislation works like rebates, if you meet milestones that are defined up front, and there will be due diligence to make sure you do. Intel is not, thus no money to them yet. It's right th
Re: (Score:2)
Are we talking about the same thing?
It appears the DEI parts of the legislation are a large part to why it hasn't progressed further.
Re: (Score:2)
Then Intel doesn't get paid.
They agreed to it. They agreed to be audited on it. If they don't actually do it, then they don't get the money.
Why is it such a problem that a company that willfully accepted terms should be held accountable to those terms?
Re: (Score:2)
The Biden infrastructure deals aren't the usual free money for corporations: Corporations have to make stuff, with the (usually state-mandated) rider it buy x and y. That means a lot of paperwork for those corporations, very few have the skill-set: Creating a de facto monopoly. That in turn means the corporation can charge a premium (AKA "executive bonus"). It's why the 2-minute hate against socialism demanded by US privately-owned newspaper and US privately-owned broadcast network, is wrong. It also
Should have funded China (Score:1)
I'm not a China-phile, but why couldn't we just pay the money to the Chinese and have them build and manufacture chips for us? End result would be cheaper and more abundant CPUs, how is that bad? Cheaper laptops can't be bad.
Re: (Score:2)
Who said to do that? We can get those from NATO. As for other chips, it's better to get them from someplace rather than invest in a US company that goes bankrupt and then we have no chips from anywhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, because if China is making all the electronic components, we can just wish some $50B fabs into existence in NATO countries all of a sudden should China tell us to go fuck ourselves and bans export to NATO countries.
Who said to do that? You did, when you said "but why couldn't we just pay the money to the Chinese and have them build and manufacture chips for us?"
Re: (Score:2)
So your solution is we pay a US company that promptly flushes the money down the toilet (though somehow the executives get mansions) and goes bankrupt. Then we don't have chips, or money. Then the economy collapses, no money for military either. How's that going to work out?
Re: (Score:2)
No, the solution is actually what is being done, rather than what is only happening in your uninformed fantasy land.
From the summary you didn't read:
The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones -- and after significant due diligence.
No milestones, no money. Intel hasn't gotten shit, and they won't unless they do what they agreed to up front.
Thanks for showing you can't even bother to read the summary before posting absolute fiction.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Also the UN is only so-so at best, since they can't seem to actually do anything.
Re: (Score:2)
> There is no USSR anymore.
Tell that to Putin.
> Also the UN is only so-so at best, since they can't seem to actually do anything.
The UN is a discussion forum. By design. Complaining they can't do anything is like complaining Slashdot can't do anything.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Do me a favor and eat shit and die, mmkay? Calling me what you just called me is a mortal insult in 2024, so GET CORRECT.
Re: (Score:2)
There is no USSR anymore.
Also the UN is only so-so at best, since they can't seem to actually do anything.
The absolute weak-dick responses of NATO and the UN to the Russians heading into Ukraine explain entirely why Putin was able to do it in the first place.
If all you have is words and some economic sanctions, you are totally dickless. Russia should have been put in their place with explosive ordinance back in 2014 or thereabouts, but that ship has sailed.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually the Russian Federation is pretty much USSR, just that it lost some of the former "republics" and they hope to get them back.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Also there a modded up comment right now claiming Taylor Swift has done more for mental health than anything else in our history. So, great company there, nerd.
Re: (Score:3)
Why not just skip the middle steps in that and just hand over all American-engineered silicon IP to them since they'd steal it anyway?
Only if they annex Taiwan (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not a China-phile, but why couldn't we just pay the money to the Chinese and have them build and manufacture chips for us? End result would be cheaper and more abundant CPUs, how is that bad? Cheaper laptops can't be bad.
Chinese chips are absolute garbage. You're either the most poorly informed person on slashdot or a troll, but for everyone else...China is lagging far behind us. Taiwan is leading the world in semi-conductor production and we're pouring money into Intel in order to have a Plan B in case China invades Taiwan.
Most knowledgeable on the subject believe that if any military action, of any sort or scale, happens against Taiwan, TSMC will be GREATLY impacted as they're dependent on a lot of imports and delicate supply chain machinery. Also, the people of Taiwan aren't too fond of being invaded by China and there's a LOT of delicate equipment in each fab. All it takes is one minor act of sabotage in one step and output grinds to a halt. Most experts believe that if China annexes Taiwan, TSMC will cease to operate completely, despite Beijing's wishes. Nearly every qualified engineer will flee the country, many will sabotage the expensive equipment that can only be made in the Netherlands...and will never get replaced due to impending sanctions.
You thought COVID was bad? Your life will suck if TSMC goes down for 3 months or just stops operating. TMK, the only other choices are Intel and Samsung...and neither are up to the tasks of supplying the world's ravenous chip needs.
Re: (Score:3)
Most experts believe that if China annexes Taiwan, TSMC will cease to operate completely, despite Beijing's wishes. Nearly every qualified engineer will flee the country, many will sabotage the expensive equipment that can only be made in the Netherlands...and will never get replaced due to impending sanctions.
It isn't that it can "only be made in the Netherlands", it's that ASML has most of the IP for EUV patterning tightly locked up. The critical components that the ASML machines make use of are the EUV light source, and the lenses. The light source is produced in the US by Cymer (who was conveniently bought-out by ASML, but still operates out of San Diego) and the optics are made by a Zeiss (a German company), but as many of the most advanced optics and mirrors in the world (the ones made for billion dollar
Re: (Score:2)
All it takes is one minor act of sabotage in one step and output grinds to a halt.
Or a single 2,000 pound JDAM dropped through the roof.
I have no doubt that if China tried to invade, the very first thing that would happen would be some kind of sequence of large-order explosions in critical locations within those facilities.
Re: (Score:2)
Nothing needs to happen for the TSMC fabs to become inoperable after China invades Taiwan. The advanced machinery depends on support contracts from ASML and others and without those it becomes unusable in short order.
Re: (Score:2)
Because unless you are a fluent Chinese speaker and like going to jail for wrongthink, the US needs to make its own chips, or at least only get them from allies.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not a China-phile, but why couldn't we just pay the money to the Chinese and have them build and manufacture chips for us? End result would be cheaper and more abundant CPUs, how is that bad? Cheaper laptops can't be bad.
National security, that's why.
If we were confident that Chinese suppliers would continue providing chips indefinitely, your suggestion would indeed be a great strategy, and indeed it would be the default strategy the free market would pursue. Alternatively, if there were big chip fabs in European countries, with whom we have a solid and reliable relationship, we could apply your suggested strategy there.
In fact, the fabs that we care about aren't even in China, they're in Taiwan, and Taiwan is a good fr
Re: (Score:2)
We could buy defense related chips and other small value stuff from Europe/NATO countries. How many F-22s do we buy every year compared to laptops? But that aside, my comment was more from frustration. Buying from China is better than paying Intel billions of dollars and then they go out of business. Not only are we out billions of dollars, but also we don't have any chips. This is the same thing that happened with Solyndra. Remember that? We gave them a half a billion dollars and they went bankrupt within
Re: (Score:2)
We could buy defense related chips and other small value stuff from Europe/NATO countries.
We could if they made them. They don't. We could try to incentivize allies to build chip fabs, of course, but why not do it here?
How many F-22s do we buy every year compared to laptops?
Doesn't really matter. Laptops are also essential for national security. Protecting the consumer goods pipeline is almost as important as protecting the pipeline of actual defense materiel.
Buying from China is better than paying Intel billions of dollars and then they go out of business. Not only are we out billions of dollars, but also we don't have any chips.
Which is why the Chips Act has milestone requirements, to make sure that we don't do that. Or at least to reduce the probability. As the summary says, the money hasn't been disbursed yet, and
Re: (Score:2)
The entire point is so that all semiconductor fabs aren't in Taiwan for when China inevitably invades, or just blockades it.
Re: (Score:2)
Because there's a whole catalog of technology that we'd rather we didn't export to China for them to steal and distribute to every dictatorship on the planet. Military technology. Manufacturing technology that enables military technology. That kind of thing.
Glad I could help.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks, my IQ must be improving dramatically. Einstein said "sufficiently advanced intelligence cannot be distinguished from insanity by fools" .. not sure if I translated that accurately from the original German but definitely captured the gist of it.
Hold the phone and the credit card! (Score:2)
The Silicon Valley company is supposed to receive $8.5 billion in grants and $11 billion in loans from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, but only if the chipmaker meets key milestones -- and after significant due diligence. That process, which applies to all Chips Act winners, has been clear from the outset, and aims to ensure that companies only get taxpayer dollars once they've actually delivered on their promises. Intel, like other potential recipients, hasn't received any money yet.
Surely, if Intel's board are extra nice, they can get an exception? I'm actually flatly shocked that there were built-in milestones necessary. Most of the time this type of cash handout is just, "Here ya go. Pretend to swish it around in the air a bit before you hand it to your executives. See ya next funding round." But? I have faith that the current financial woes won't be met with indifference. Oh no, it's much more important to keep shoveling taxpayer funds at failing corporations. I mean, those executi
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Err, let's see, about a month ago it was the Biden/Harris campaign.
It's now just the Harris campaign. Nothing else has changed....same folks, same campaign....
Same responsibilities for the past 3 dismal years....
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Well, you got one right...assuming this is for 18yr + olds on college campuses....
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Trump did NOT say Neo Nazi's and White Supremeacists were fine people. [snopes.com]
For some reason, Biden and Harris keep repeating the lie...and no one from MSM (ABC, CBS, NBC) or even CNN or MSNBC will call them on it.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I do remember seeing it too...and I heard Trump specifically speak against the Nazi's and White Supremacists ....I heard him condemn then, but you won't get the liberal media to show that part of his speech.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The link provided is flawed. In fact, though, Trump said there were fine people on both sides. One of those sides included the Proud Boys.
So basically, you're trying to split hairs. Trump had a full-on neo-Nazi visit him at his place in Florida. He likes Nazis almost as much as all those Republicans who crashed Grindr at their recent convention like...tators (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
Have AMD buy out Intel (Score:2)
By market cap, AMD is substantially bigger now than Intel. They should be able to work out a stock and cash deal with some help from DC to take in the good parts of Intel (R&D and manufacturing) and liquidate the rest.
AMD should absolutely act on it because relying on an Asian fabs gets dumber each year as the PLA Navy grows stronger and more capable of blockading Taiwan to a degree that the USN couldn't break without horrific casualties. (South Korean, Japanese and Singapore fabs are already well withi
Re: (Score:1)
market cap doesn't mean volume actually making things. That's just the 3 H U.S. market fundamentals of hope, hype and hooey. Intel makes 3/4 the stuff of the market, AMD less than 1/4
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
You have a lot of faith in someone who cannot put together 2-3 coherent sentences without notes or a teleprompter....
But, at least she IS consistantly unburdened by the past....
Re: (Score:2)
This is Intel vs TSMC, not AMD!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
By market cap, AMD is substantially bigger now than Intel. They should be able to work out a stock and cash deal with some help from DC to take in the good parts of Intel (R&D and manufacturing) and liquidate the rest.
AMD should absolutely act on it because relying on an Asian fabs gets dumber each year as the PLA Navy grows stronger and more capable of blockading Taiwan to a degree that the USN couldn't break without horrific casualties. (South Korean, Japanese and Singapore fabs are already well within missile range of the PLA)
So you must be pretty young or have a goldfish memory if you think life was good when Intel dominated the chip market. For the non-trolls, Intel has a long history of abusing their position. In the Pentium era, they'd specifically hold back processor innovations because they could...they had a monopoly. Once Cyrix and later AMD came out with alternative chips...only then we get clockspeed increases and the dreaded MMX hand grenade...an anti-competitive instruction set extension designed to kill alternative chips.
Without competition, chip manufacturers don't put much work into their products. It's a license to print money if you don't have to improve or innovate. History has shown us this many many times. Life WILL suck if AMD is the only game in town for servers and desktops. Sorry...no one is making enough ARM chips to handle our server needs. They're cool laptops and such....but...your life will get tangibly worse if x86 is reduced to a single vendor.
Finally, and I think you already knew this, but for everyone else...this is much bigger than Biden vs Trump. The administration is investing, with the encouragement of the entire fucking world, including TSMC, into having alternative fabs. AMD vs Intel is irrelevant. Xi is clearly irrational at this point and cares more about weird military flexing more than saving the Chinese economy. The vast majority of the world's fab capacity is all on this one island which China keeps flirting with invading. If they do, fab production shuts down...will probably NEVER restart again with original capabilities...and it's quite unwise to have nearly all fo the world's fab capacity controlled by one company....even if Taiwan wasn't under constant military threat. We need Intel to step up and be able to compete with TSMC...both to boost our economic output as well as protect us from potential abuse from TSMC down the road.
Reason to continue Windows 10 past October 2025 (Score:2)
If we can keep our Windows 10 computers, we won't need a new chip plant. The chips we have are good enough.
Re: (Score:2)
China is barred from using TSMC. It has really helped Apple keep their business by killing off competition from Huawei.
It is a felony in the USA to help China in semi-conductors. It is to stop people in Taiwan who have ties to the US to help China in their semi-conductor industry no matter how much the financial incentives are.
You want competition but Intel doesn't want competition. The US doesn't want competition from China.
The whole idea of competition is solely from which camp you're in. If you're an Int
AMD would manage Intel better if they bought it (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry...no one is making enough ARM chips to handle our server needs.
Amazon's AWS might have a bone to pick with you.
AWS only want the big spenders (Score:2)
Sorry...no one is making enough ARM chips to handle our server needs.
Amazon's AWS might have a bone to pick with you.
While it's true that most people who have their act together and can move to the cloud have, some apps require on-prem installations and probably a huge amount more are just run by organizations that either don't want to move to the cloud or don't have their act together enough to do the migration. It's easier to keep replacing servers in their server-room like they have for 20 years now. For every COBOL app, you imagine there's probably more legacy VB, struts, Ruby apps, etc that work just fine, on serve
Re: (Score:2)
What about Canada? (Score:2)
Why not entice AMD to move to the US? (Score:2)
Why not entice AMD to expand Global Foundries to the US instead of using chipmaking plants in Taiwan? Is AMD that much separate from GF to be able to do this?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or, maybe they shouldn't have spent $150B on stock buybacks, according to their own god damn website [intc.com].
I have a hard time producing tears for a company that looted it's own coffers to pay shareholders, especially when they're still announcing and paying out dividends.
Fuck Intel.
Re: (Score:2)