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Even before getting into the geopolitics, isn't this almost exactly what the CHIPS act was supposed to do? You know, the one that the Trump team cut to shreds?

Even before getting into the geopolitics, isn't this almost exactly what the CHIPS act was supposed to do? You know, the one that the Trump team cut to shreds? This feels like it's all TV. Trump is doing what he's great at: slapping his name on work other people did in order to steal credit.

dmix 2y ago
> You know, the one that the Trump team cut to shreds? I looked this up and sounds like they let probationary employees go (40/140 employees at dept of commerce CHIPS office) + 20 voluntarily resigned. I wonder if that was intentional or just the usual DOGE indiscriminate chaos. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-chips-act-office-losing-191830118.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-chips-act-office-losing-191830... The article does claim: > The staff cuts, while significant, aren’t as deep as some within the government and chip industry anticipated. In particular, they won’t have a major impact on the teams responsible for negotiating with companies and evaluating their progress toward contractual benchmarks, a person familiar with the matter said. The chips office leadership urged against cuts to those departments in recent meetings with Lutnick. Addtionally, NIST's CHIPS office also had probationary cuts...CHIPS has two parts, one subsidizing companies via Dept of Commerce and a 2nd big investment in public sector research which NIST was doing. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/02/21/news-trumps-moves-could-delay-chips-act-funding-distribution-as-nist-plans-major-staff-cuts/ https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/02/21/news-trumps-moves... It's also congress assigned money so they probably can't claw it back (legally), the legislative branch controls the purse. But they could slow walk it or try to change the rules.
bitsage 2y ago
Trump has long boasted that he could have gotten semiconductor investments without subsidies. He would see it as a win if TSMC did the same thing, or even more, for free.

dmix 2y ago

> You know, the one that the Trump team cut to shreds? I looked this up and sounds like they let probationary employees go (40/140 employees at dept of commerce CHIPS office) + 20 voluntarily resigned. I wonder if that was intentional or just the usual DOGE indiscriminate chaos. https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-chips-act-office-losing-191830118.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-chips-act-office-losing-191830... The article does claim: > The staff cuts, while significant, aren’t as deep as some within the government and chip industry anticipated. In particular, they won’t have a major impact on the teams responsible for negotiating with companies and evaluating their progress toward contractual benchmarks, a person familiar with the matter said. The chips office leadership urged against cuts to those departments in recent meetings with Lutnick. Addtionally, NIST's CHIPS office also had probationary cuts...CHIPS has two parts, one subsidizing companies via Dept of Commerce and a 2nd big investment in public sector research which NIST was doing. https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/02/21/news-trumps-moves-could-delay-chips-act-funding-distribution-as-nist-plans-major-staff-cuts/ https://www.trendforce.com/news/2025/02/21/news-trumps-moves... It's also congress assigned money so they probably can't claw it back (legally), the legislative branch controls the purse. But they could slow walk it or try to change the rules.

bitsage 2y ago

Trump has long boasted that he could have gotten semiconductor investments without subsidies. He would see it as a win if TSMC did the same thing, or even more, for free.