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Comment by paul_funyun | Hacker News Reader

I'm normally a free market type of guy, but national defense is an exception. Our capacity to produce semiconductors without depending on foreign entities is as vital to national security as our capacity for food production. No nation can be strong if they rely on other nations to maintain that strength.

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  I'm normally a free market type of guy, but national defense is an exception.

Your post shows the effectiveness of companies using national defense as a PR stunt to siphon public money.

Intel's Pat Gelsinger has arguably been the most effective at this. He's been touting national defense as a way to get billions in subsidies since his first day on the job, and then turned around and used their profits to buy back more stock or give out dividends.

Of course it's inefficient, if it wasn't inefficient it wouldn't need subsidies. Better than nationalizing it or outsourcing our security to foreign actors.

Should have started during Obama's time. Now too late. The mid -segment and low-end chips prices already cornered by the Chinese. The high-end cornered by Taiwanese. The best USA can do now is economic trade barrier on silicon - have to do it now to have a chance recovery within next 5 years before Chinese reach 2nm mass productions especially going for quantum and AI GPUs.

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