The Trump administration has launched their own “Manhattan Project” for chips, putting us on a war footing for chips.
Intel, the largest chip fabricator in the US, has been in talks with Donald Trump over a potential government stake in the company.
The US would pay for a stake in the company.
Intel doesn’t make the best chips, inferior to Nvidia and AMD, but what makes them important is it not only designs them, it manufactures them.
“This feels like the Manhattan Project – or the run-up to World War II,” MIT AI computer scientist Dave Blundin said. “It’s every bit as important as the space race was, as the nuclear arms race was. Actually, it’s more important.’”
The US and Intel are in talks. The deal might not go through.
The move comes after two AI companies agreed last week to hand over 15 percent of their chip sales revenue in China to the US government in exchange for export licenses.
Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) entered an unprecedented arrangement with the White House to promote and sell their semiconductors in China last week, three people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times.
“In the short term, this is fantastic. In the long term, wow, could this turn bad in a hurry,’ Blundin said. ‘It’s good for the US economy, but we’re going to use that to fund [the] US catching up in the chip wars.
“Very, very good business deal and incredibly slippery slope precedent.”
The deal could pour more than $2 billion into the US government, the New York Times reported, although Trump did not reveal what the money may be used for.
Some are concerned it is not in our national security interests. Others say it could encourage China to race to make superior products.
