During an interview with PBS’s “Firing Line” that took place on May 1 and was released on Friday, Washington Post columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria stated that the way we’re subsidizing chip companies to manufacture in the U.S. isn’t effective because Intel, the biggest receiver of subsidies “lost out to TSMC in making the most cutting-edge chips of the last generation. It’s losing out to Nvidia in making the cutting-edge chips for the AI generation.”
Zakaria said, [relevant remarks begin around 21:45] “The U.S. is now copying the Chinese model, frankly, where funding chip companies to manufacture in the U.S. I’m not sure we’re doing it right. Look at the company we picked to give the most subsidies to, Intel. Well, Intel is the company that turned out to — lost out to TSMC in making the most cutting-edge chips of the last generation. It’s losing out to Nvidia in making the cutting-edge chips for the AI generation.”
Host Margaret Hoover then said, “You’re saying government shouldn’t pick winners and losers.”
Zakaria responded, “Well, you look at it and you say to yourself, you can see why they picked Intel. It’s safe. It’s secure. It’s sort of like the IBM of the moment. But by the time a company becomes…so stable and secure that the government is willing to pick it, the market has moved and it’s found new innovators.”
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