What's the alternative, let the Chinese get ahead, them buy chips with backdoors from them? Or maybe let Taiwan do it and then get invaded? It was the right decision.
I would've preferred the gov't handing Intel a check and expecting, in return,
1) ownership stake of Intel, including governance, for xx years
2) stock buyback ban
3) stock dividend ban
4) golden parachute ban
5) far more public disclosures of progress, setbacks, and other problems
If Intel—who's spent BILLIONS on buybacks—can't find enough money from the debt or equity or private markets, then, yes, serious strings should be required.
Currently, CHIPS only receives some profit sharing and that's it.
There were way too many alternative ways to implement this and we're paying the price of picking a "winner" that is massively cocky and arrogant with abysmal results. Major mistake and unlikely to deliver because it got wads of cash with very few serious strings attached.
Just exposed yesterday:
>The company is permanently grounding the Intel Air Shuttle, which flies workers between its major sites in Hillsboro, Silicon Valley and Arizona.
>The company stopped the flights last year then resumed flying in April. The shuttle was especially prized by Oregon employees, who sought to avoid the 30-mile drive across the metro area to Portland International Airport.
>The decision to permanently ground the shuttle, just five months after reinstating it, suggests that Intel executives didn’t recognize the severity of their financial situation until very recently.
That’s well and good for Intel, why would TSMC agree to any of those terms? You’re forgetting that CHIPS wasn’t just hand outs for Intel, but to bring other fabs to the US.
