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U.S. government takes 10% stake in Intel

(www.cnbc.com)
607 points givemeethekeys | 14 comments | 22 Aug 25 21:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.407s | source | bottom
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jjcm ◴[22 Aug 25 22:36 UTC] No.44990743[source]▶
In general I would rather the government take a stake in corporations they're bailing out. I think the "too big to fail" bailouts in the past should have come with more of a cost for the business, so on one hand I'm glad this is finally happening.

On the other hand, I wish it were a more formalized process rather than this politicized "our president made a deal to save america!" / "Intel is back and the government is investing BUY INTEL SHARES" media event. These things should follow a strict set of rules and processes so investors and companies know what to expect. These kind of deals should be boring, not a media event.

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ch4s3 ◴[22 Aug 25 23:08 UTC] No.44991032[source]▶
I’d really rather we didn’t bail out these companies at all. It clearly creates moral hazard and makes it hard for better run companies to enter markets.
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bongodongobob ◴[23 Aug 25 00:24 UTC] No.44991669[source]▶
Well as much as you don't like it, companies this big failing is terrible for the economy and in this case, national security to a degree. I'm of the thinking that when your company gets to a certain size we'd be well off nationalizing. Apple has more money than some nation states. Something that huge has the potential to affect global politics. There's lots of other reasons too, but this isn't like letting the corner store fail. The repercussions are huge. If we're going to bail out, the people should own some of it.
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1. UncleOxidant ◴[23 Aug 25 01:23 UTC] No.44992071[source]▶
> Apple has more money than some nation states.

And Apple needs their chips fabbed, so why not have Apple invest $50B into Intel? Nvidia could afford to chip in too. These companies that face a huge amount of geopolitical risk because they've put all of their eggs in the TSMC basket should have to pay for this not US taxpayers.

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2. bongodongobob ◴[23 Aug 25 01:28 UTC] No.44992089[source]▶
I'd rather the citizens control the companies than the other way around.
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3. lugu ◴[23 Aug 25 01:46 UTC] No.44992218[source]▶
If TSMC diseaper tomorrow, people will still buy computers, with chips made from Korea, or China, who cares. What are apple or Nvidia risking? They have worked hard to lock their customer. The problem is for the US military.
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4. fach ◴[23 Aug 25 01:48 UTC] No.44992240[source]▶
Branding nationalizing companies as “citizens control” is quite the spin. Chinese citizens surely own the means of production, right?
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5. UncleOxidant ◴[23 Aug 25 01:49 UTC] No.44992246[source]▶
Apple & Nvidia switching to, say, Samsung as their foundry would likely take at least a year before they'd start to see production. Meanwhile, little to no revenue. It is a risk for them. And if China went for Taiwan, why not also cause some trouble for S Korea while they're at it? (Wouldn't have to invade, just block shipping, etc. - if China decided to do maximal damage. It's also quite possible that N Korea would take advantage of the situation)
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6. bongodongobob ◴[23 Aug 25 01:59 UTC] No.44992309{3}[source]▶
Nationalizing a company isn't communism and isn't intended to resemble it.
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7. hluska ◴[23 Aug 25 02:02 UTC] No.44992319[source]▶
You’re proposing that the United States government force Apple to invest in Intel? Apple chose a different supplier than Intel; at this point it’s hard to consider Intel a competitor to TSMC but let’s pretend they are.

You have proposed a “free market” system in which if you choose the wrong competitor you can be forced to bail out the chosen one. The economics of that don’t work at all.

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8. sanex ◴[23 Aug 25 02:19 UTC] No.44992444{4}[source]▶
How is that not common/collective control of the means of production?
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9. lugu ◴[23 Aug 25 02:26 UTC] No.44992492{3}[source]▶
I think it would be shorter, they work with Samsung to evaluate their option. And if China did went after TSMC (Taiwan and us) plus Samsung, Nvidia can still switch supplier (Intel?). The risk (let's say one year revenu) isn't worth joining the fab business. They have seen what happened to Intel and AND. And they know China will have good fabs in not too long. Nvidia true competitor is apple, and they are in the same boat.
10. harimau777 ◴[23 Aug 25 03:03 UTC] No.44992722{3}[source]▶
I suppose that depends on whether said country is a democracy where citizens control the government or a dictatorship where they do not.
11. yunohn ◴[23 Aug 25 08:56 UTC] No.44994476{4}[source]▶
Indeed, it’s actually a horrific non-communist pro-capitalist version that leaves citizens much worse off - see “bailout socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for masses”.
12. thaumasiotes ◴[23 Aug 25 09:12 UTC] No.44994558{5}[source]▶
What would common or collective control mean? If everyone held "control" in common, it wouldn't be possible to do anything.

It is possible to nationalize a company, though. For example, Saudi Aramco is owned by the state.

How is that not common/collective control of the means of production?

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13. sanex ◴[23 Aug 25 12:15 UTC] No.44995421{6}[source]▶
1. A central government taking ownership of a company in lieu of everyone owning a share. 2. It is.
14. UncleOxidant ◴[23 Aug 25 22:03 UTC] No.44999491[source]▶
The free market is great if there are no discontinuities. However, being a greedy algorithm it's not great about planning ahead for things like geopolitical risk - such as some of the largest, most profitable companies putting the bulk of advanced CPU and GPU production in Taiwan. As such, if we're going to make adjustments so that we do try to plan ahead for potential disruption we need to incentivize companies that need fabs to produce their advanced devices to invest in some domestic production so that we're not over a barrel if China decides to invade Taiwan. I'd rather have Apple, Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, etc. make some investment and take some ownership in Intel than for the US government to do it. This is essentially what Craig Barrett has been proposing as well.