Wow, you believe companies actually pay taxes? Ok, a bit hyperbolic, but really. A half a century of deregulation and tax breaks isn't making this _worse_ for companies.
My point is that SEMATECH shows you can have a voluntary consortium where different parties fund an organization and then collectively benefit from it.
Government does that, but on a more general level and it's not based on voluntary interaction (you must pay taxes, otherwise if you resist arrest you will be murdered).
I'm responding to people who complain how companies are ripping the public off, when in reality it's the government that takes almost half of GDP in developed nations.
If the government took less in taxes, then companies would have more left over to fund a voluntary consortium which would do similar things that NIH and NSF do.