Andrew here. The Trump administration is reportedly considering taking stakes in semiconductor companies — beyond Intel — that were granted money as part of the CHIPS and Science Act, in a major shift toward industrial policy.
Cabinet members have said that U.S. taxpayers should have received shares in exchange for funding chipmakers. But there’s some important missing context: At the time, companies like TSMC probably wouldn’t have taken CHIPS Act money if they had to give up equity. The law was meant to persuade such companies to do something that they believed wasn’t economical, namely building factories in the U.S.
But the landscape has changed amid President Trump’s tariffs, which has made producing chips abroad much more expensive — and made CHIPS Act money more valuable. It appears that the administration’s approach has been more stick than carrot. What are the implications? Will U.S. companies take government money in the future? And will this approach get the right results? Tell us what you think.
Is the A.I. pendulum swinging again?
For years now, investors have clambered to get a piece of the action in artificial intelligence. That’s pushed up valuations to nosebleed-inducing levels, even as some market observers (and Sam Altman) warn that things are getting out of hand.
For now, private-market investors still appear to be eager to bid up the value of A.I. start-ups. But on Tuesday’s market moves suggest that public investors are getting more jittery, raising at least some questions about the future of the tech boom.
Things still look bubbly for privately held start-ups — including OpenAI, which is in talks to let current and former employees sell about $6 billion worth of stock at an astonishing roughly $500 billion valuation. That’s nearly twice the market capitalization of Salesforce.
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The post Is the A.I. Sell-off the Start of Something Bigger? appeared first on New York Times.
