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Jimmy Goldsmith was right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmOkaKh3-s

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Yesterday was a real kick in the stomach, not a happy day.

American "industrial policy" goes up against the fact that Wall Street decides value, and there is greater value for an American company to design a product here, have it made overseas, then ship it back. Nvidia does not make its own chips. Nvidia chips are made by TSMC in Taiwan which is 100 miles off the coast of China. TSMC is scheduled for 6.6B in CHIPS act funding to help them build their new factory in Arizona. TSMC has been able to perfect its foundry business by being a foundry only, employing only Taiwanese engineers in Taiwan according to Taiwanese standards. Intel is an American company and has had to play by American rules, environmental and labor, which bite. Intel has fabs around the world but it truly designs and makes its own chips here. Nvidia (designs in America) and TSMC (makes in Taiwan) and Intel (designs and makes in America) are not the same business model. Maybe Intel will split in two to better compete, or be absorbed.

Gelsinger is out primarily because of the timing of the stampede to stock up on Nvidia chips for the landrush -- to take and hold territory in the brave new world opening up for artifical intelligence applications including surveillance technologies, yay.

I think the big question is: what is the difference anymore between "here" and "there"? Does somebody like Jeff Bezos lose any sleep at night over the prospect of war with China?

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Yeah, I know about GaAS chips, I've sold them and they are hugely important devices. The stupidity of our "experts" is astounding. Who could not see this coming? Apparently our government leaders and the Oligarch's who direct them.

I remember a huge military project to create a ship to shore comms system on our Aegis class ships. The project took a long time to develop, mainly due to politics and territorial conflicts between military departments, their preferred class of contractors and private business. It was a massive project and from initial announcement to final selection was more than 8 years. Lots of money was spent yet the major players had been long selected and the key hardware component came from IBM. I suspect lot's of bribes were paid here since their hardware was never really up to the task and created a nightmare for users given the incompatibility of their solutions set. So, the selection was made and within a very short period IBM EOL'd (end of life) the equipment, sold the division to China's Lenovo and offered no real replacement setting off another expensive run of bids and trials. This was government waste of resources, time, and demonstrated why our country no longer works. No one in the military wants products made in China, but they have outsourced themselves into a very small corner.

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The chips act grants for semiconductor in the U.S. suffered from dei.

https://thehill.com/opinion/4517470-dei-killed-the-chips-act/

Seems the Biden Administration last minute is trying to save the chips act before Trump takes office.

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It suffered from cronyism and incompetence.

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Somewhat off the particular topic discussed here, but South Korea's declaration of martial law today seems to follow the general pattern of the extreme measures to which the "global order" is willing to go to retain control right now. This appears to be the 16th martial-law declaration since 1948 (around the time of the ROK's founding), but only the first since 1979-80 (following an assassination).

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/south-korea-declares-emergency-martial-law

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Test run for u.s.?

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UPDATE--Oops...shortest martial law ever:

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/south-korea-declares-emergency-martial-law

Still can't discount the ruling party's ****ery here.

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Glenn Diesen @Glenn_Diesen

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14m

South Korea’s Parliament votes to revoke the martial law, as it is allowed to do under South Korean law. The president has responded by sending special forces into parliament. The opposition calls it a coup d'état.

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Wow, I can just smell the norms from here.

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I work in renewable energy. I am not concerned about the effects of Trump's upcoming administration... up to this point. Gallium is a key ingredient in solar panels. Trump can cut the tax credits and make everything compete with out them -- fine. But you need the right materials.

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MoA:

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/12/mirror-action-china-to-block-dual-use-exports-to-us-war-mongers-.html#more

Gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials are important for chip making in electronics industries and for weapon manufacturers. Graphite is necessary to make rechargeable batteries.

These commodity items are not necessarily rare but China has plenty of them and, more importantly, is nearly the only country which processes them in large quantities. The reason is that the processes to do refine the raw materials are somewhat dirty and only profitable when done on scale.

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The way it has worked up until now: Let China do the dirty work, and then after a while, we will stomp our feet and yell about the poor working conditions.

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