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607 points givemeethekeys | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.628s | source
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cuttothechase ◴[] No.44990065[source]
Genuine question-

How does Govt picking winners and losers going to help?

Intel is no Too big to fail Bank. Why save Intel of all chip manufacturers? Wouldnt it be like 25 years too late, with Intel and its heydays !?

Would Govt now ensure parity by investing in "marquee" entities across different industrial domains?

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miohtama ◴[] No.44990294[source]
There is only 1 winner and 1 loser: Intel.

It's the only chip manufacturer "left" in the US. The argument is national security: the US expects China to invade Taiwan and this will kill TSMC in the process.

Whether this will happen or not can be debated, but this is what the government expects.

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pixelatedindex ◴[] No.44990445[source]
> the US expects China to invade Taiwan and this will kill TSMC in the process.

Would it though? The TSMC foundries are pretty much in every continent. Are they just going to stop operating if this happens? Because that seems akin to killing a golden goose.

Also what is up with Global Foundries? I don’t hear a peep about them.

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internetter ◴[] No.44990713[source]
Global Foundries is on 12nm. TSMC is at 3.
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carom ◴[] No.44991022[source]
TSMC gets their machines from ASML who licenses their technology from the Department of Energy. The US will be OK.
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1. chrsw ◴[] No.44991263[source]
If (or when) China invades Taiwan we will be better off than Taiwan but I wouldn't call us "OK" at that point. That will be a major disruption.

It will take decades for the US to get where Taiwan is now in semiconductor manufacturing, if ever. It's not just about building the most advanced chip factory. It's about re-aligning the entire nation's value system and culture to allow such development to happen in the first place.

We complain about the money we spend already. And now we're supposed to subsidize an entire industry to the point where we can build the most complex machines known to civilization at scale in a time-frame that matters to a global conflict that's potentially approaching soon? I don't see it.

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2. voidfunc ◴[] No.44993753[source]
> It's about re-aligning the entire nation's value system and culture to allow such development to happen in the first place.

It's taken about 8 years to realign the US from a democracy to a fascist regime, something that was nearly unthinkable. This isn't a hard problem with the right propaganda and manipulation.

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3. chrsw ◴[] No.44999828[source]
Yes but it's easy to go from democracy to fascism. It's harder going the other way. It's like going from a clean house to a messy house is much easier than going from a filthy house to a tidy house.