U.S. takes 10% stake in Intel as Trump flexes more power over big business
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So how did they get all that stock for free?
The stake will be paid for through $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded to Intel under the 2022 U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, plus $3.2 billion awarded to the company as part of a program called Secure Enclave. It’s a formerly classified initiative that Congress appropriated funds for in 2024 after lobbying by Intel, Politico reported in 2024.
Including $2.2 billion in CHIPs grants Intel has received so far, the total investment is $11.1 billion, or 9.9%. Intel is valued at about $108 billion on the stock market.
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So how did they get all that stock for free?
When Biden was president the Democrats passed the Chips Act, which has grants for chipmakers to build in the US. When Trump took power he basically stopped issuing these grants to companies that were set to get them.
My understanding is that basically Intel will give 10% of itself if Trump stops blocking the grants it was already set to get. I guess Intel's thinking is that if they make the US a part owner, then Trump won't obstruct the company so much.
This might sound like good news (kind of) in that the government is getting equity in return for the money, but I doubt Trump will enforce the original requirements and purpose of the grants, so Intel probably won't end up finishing many of the factories it was supposed to build. It also sets a precedent that you can't rely on goverment grants to do things as future parties may change the terms of the deal retroactively, even after you already started.
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The stake will be paid for through $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded to Intel under the 2022 U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, plus $3.2 billion awarded to the company as part of a program called Secure Enclave. It’s a formerly classified initiative that Congress appropriated funds for in 2024 after lobbying by Intel, Politico reported in 2024.
Including $2.2 billion in CHIPs grants Intel has received so far, the total investment is $11.1 billion, or 9.9%. Intel is valued at about $108 billion on the stock market.
Oh got it. It's Trump attempting to take credit for Biden's good legislation.
Now that checks out. Thanks!
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Why does he always close with "Thank you for your attention to this matter"? Does he think he's got his big boy pants on or something?
I wish he would say, “And God have mercy on our souls.”
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When Biden was president the Democrats passed the Chips Act, which has grants for chipmakers to build in the US. When Trump took power he basically stopped issuing these grants to companies that were set to get them.
My understanding is that basically Intel will give 10% of itself if Trump stops blocking the grants it was already set to get. I guess Intel's thinking is that if they make the US a part owner, then Trump won't obstruct the company so much.
This might sound like good news (kind of) in that the government is getting equity in return for the money, but I doubt Trump will enforce the original requirements and purpose of the grants, so Intel probably won't end up finishing many of the factories it was supposed to build. It also sets a precedent that you can't rely on goverment grants to do things as future parties may change the terms of the deal retroactively, even after you already started.
I don't understand why they would want to build in the US? There's plenty of places with cheaper labour.
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I don't understand why they would want to build in the US? There's plenty of places with cheaper labour.
In case of war the country needs national supply of chips to put in rockets, planes, everything really.
If you make everything in Taiwan and that's the place that's getting blockaded by enemy Navy...
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Yes, but also because they're just better chips and you probably should have only been getting them to begin with. Way more power efficient, smaller process, less heat, easier to upgrade, better multi core performance, lower price; you just get a better CPU.
Note that better multicore perf is not true through the entire stack, because Intel chips have p core making them have better multicore perf in a lot of price-competitive offerings.
But the current platform is quite dead, you won't get upgrades for it
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China's internal market is far more cutthroat and "capitalist" than that of the USA. And less regulated. And less monopolized, except for a few services which, ahem, are mandated (WeeChat, yes).
That was their "unique path", to move all hierarchical stuff into political entities. It look interesting on a large scale, from more "peasant-oriented" communism, kinda changing the initial Marxist picture of worker-capital relations, to this.
NB: WeeChat and WeChat are different things
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so they wont?
SEC is there to cover up corruption
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They were already providing capital without the seizure. So yeah, this is seizing.
Intel was free to refuse the money
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Note that better multicore perf is not true through the entire stack, because Intel chips have p core making them have better multicore perf in a lot of price-competitive offerings.
But the current platform is quite dead, you won't get upgrades for it
P cores give them better single core performance. But in parallel computing AMD has the advantage and has defended it for a long time now.
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In case of war the country needs national supply of chips to put in rockets, planes, everything really.
If you make everything in Taiwan and that's the place that's getting blockaded by enemy Navy...
Is there some massive geopolitical issue hovering like a guillotine over Taiwan?
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i recently got an nvidia but then i switched to linux after and nvidia is so terrible on linux so this was a good push to get a new one.
CPU vs GPU, not really the same thing lol
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P cores give them better single core performance. But in parallel computing AMD has the advantage and has defended it for a long time now.
I meant e-cores
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Are you happy now, communists? We're nationalizing companies.
yeah I have no idea what the fuck is happening anymore. the GOP is full pedo-junta on business...
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Why does he always close with "Thank you for your attention to this matter"? Does he think he's got his big boy pants on or something?
Until I read your comment, I thought this was satire and not the actual tweet. What in the fuck
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Further, he killed all trust in Intel. Now, no one will believe that there are no government back doors into everything they make.
Yeah... no one who this matters to thought that anyway. Either you get Chinese or US backdoors in your hardware. This has always been true. Theoretically Intel could make some backdoorless chips for government use though, but we won't have access to that.
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In case of war the country needs national supply of chips to put in rockets, planes, everything really.
If you make everything in Taiwan and that's the place that's getting blockaded by enemy Navy...
For that matter, it was the same problem the US then faced back when it was getting much of their electronics from Japan, as the Soviet threat loomed so large.
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i just got an amd card in response
if there's one thing that I support less than american companies, it's the american government