[HN Gopher] Monopoly supplier of critical Pentagon semiconductor...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Monopoly supplier of critical Pentagon semiconductors shuts down
       its production
        
       Author : atlasunshrugged
       Score  : 152 points
       Date   : 2021-11-13 16:13 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (mattstoller.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (mattstoller.substack.com)
        
       | dmingod666 wrote:
       | So Huawei was a national threat but Abu Dhabi owned company
       | supplied chips on GPSs are business as usual. Its think it's
       | probable (may not be the case) the whole 'security risk' think
       | was a ploy to get them ousted at the behest of thier
       | competition..
        
       | atonse wrote:
       | Can't they use the defense production act or something to take
       | over the company or the factory?
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | State monopolies are not that good of an alternative to private
         | monopolies.
        
           | baybal2 wrote:
           | Absolutely, people matter. And in case of USA government
           | taking over the ON Semi through DPA, you will have
           | essentially the same creed of people being appointed to run
           | it.
           | 
           | This comes from an obvious fact that the prime majority of
           | public companies in USA have boards stuffed with bankers, and
           | asset managers, because a big portion of there are owned by
           | bankers, and asset managers.
           | 
           | Most people in government service administering companies
           | also come from exactly the same banker/asset manager
           | background for simple lack of any others.
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | It depends though doesn't it?
           | 
           | For police, army and things like water supply, they are good.
           | Many (including me) argue that far more services work better
           | when state owned, eg health, education, power, infrastructure
           | (eg roading) and public transport.
           | 
           | It becomes a political argument rather fast.
        
           | sofixa wrote:
           | Yes, they are. Are you serious?
           | 
           | A state monopoly's problems are complacency and applying
           | government policy ( e.g. in a racist segregated country, they
           | will apply that).
           | 
           | A private monopoly will absolutely bleed their customers dry
           | out of any money they can take off them, they'll usually
           | stagnate and become complacent ( just like a state monopoly).
           | 
           | Many things are natural monopolies ( infrastructure,
           | education, healthcare) and are best left to state monopolies,
           | even with the downsides.
        
             | AnthonyMouse wrote:
             | > Many things are natural monopolies ( infrastructure,
             | education, healthcare) and are best left to state
             | monopolies, even with the downsides.
             | 
             | You have to be really careful with this. Most of the
             | natural monopolies are very narrow.
             | 
             | You can't just say "infrastructure" or even
             | "telecommunications." The natural monopoly is limited to
             | the physical plant in the last mile. Transit is a
             | competitive market. You don't want to extend the monopoly
             | an inch more than it needs to be.
             | 
             | Almost nothing in "healthcare" is a natural monopoly.
             | _Maybe_ emergency services, and even then it 's not a
             | "real" natural monopoly (which is characterized by high
             | fixed costs and low variable costs) but rather a market
             | failure as a result of being unable to make a rational
             | choice between providers while you're unconscious. It
             | certainly doesn't apply to, for example, cancer treatment,
             | where there are many providers and people are willing to
             | spend as much time as necessary and travel long distances
             | in order to receive the most competitive care.
             | 
             | And there is no sense in which any education is a natural
             | monopoly whatsoever. It is the exact opposite -- a
             | competitive market whose costs are predominantly variable
             | (per-student) rather than fixed.
             | 
             | There is a case to be made for the local government to do
             | the thing which is actually a natural monopoly, but that
             | doesn't mean you can just reclassify a bunch of random
             | stuff you want the government to do as a natural monopoly
             | when it isn't.
        
               | kelnos wrote:
               | > _And there is no sense in which any education is a
               | natural monopoly whatsoever. It is the exact opposite --
               | a competitive market whose costs are predominantly
               | variable (per-student) rather than fixed._
               | 
               | The thing that worries me about this kind of thinking is
               | that, while it's technically correct, privatizing
               | education, or treating it as a competitive market, gives
               | you bad outcomes. The rich can afford to send their kids
               | to the best schools, which keeps the rich families rich.
               | The poor can only afford to send their kids to the worst
               | schools, or the chronically-underfunded public schools,
               | and this keeps the poor families poor.
               | 
               | We already see this in some (many?) US school districts
               | with our hybrid public/private system, largely because
               | public education is underfunded and private schools are
               | generally out of financial reach for most folks.
        
               | AdrianB1 wrote:
               | The really rich can do homeschooling and that avoids all
               | problems. What is the problem that you are trying to
               | address, the rich having access to better education than
               | others or the others not having the same education as the
               | rich? There is no solution to that than forcing everyone
               | to go to the same school, but one can also avoid my
               | moving to a different state or country.
        
               | BeFlatXIII wrote:
               | Moving requires being able to afford the buy-in and, for
               | families who don't earn enough to afford the education of
               | the rich (those seem to be the careers that are less
               | amenable to remote work), finding a new job. The upfront
               | costs are prohibitive.
        
           | Teever wrote:
           | Is that true?
           | 
           | I was under the impression that state monopolies are a
           | fundamental part of modern arms procurement in some
           | instances.
        
         | wildrhythms wrote:
         | I don't think that works when the companies aren't in the U.S.
         | 
         | >the Pentagon relied on one production line for key chips, and
         | that production line, owned by Abu Dhabi-controlled Global
         | Foundries, just sold it off to a firm that will shut it down.
        
           | pm90 wrote:
           | If the company is not in the US, they can use coercion
           | through diplomatic channels. This appears to be a lack of
           | willingness or incompetence to react to this event.
           | 
           | Considering that the factory itself is in the US, it seems
           | pretty absurd that it wasn't taken over. Like do we ground
           | all our B2s if we run out of spare parts and nobody is around
           | to make them? Insane.
        
           | legutierr wrote:
           | It is very doubtful that the factory itself is foreign-owned.
           | It's more likely directly owned by a US corporate entity, and
           | Global Foundries held ownership in that entity.
           | 
           | In any event, the Defense Production Act does not have an
           | exception if the business is foreign-owned. The President's
           | powers are very broad. The scenario described in TFA is
           | exactly why the Defense Production Act exists, and I am also
           | curious to know why it wouldn't be invoked in this case.
        
           | mrtnmcc wrote:
           | Globalism, why war is obsolete.
        
             | JasonFruit wrote:
             | It's not out of date, it's retro.
        
             | atlasunshrugged wrote:
             | Kinetic conflict anyways. Economic warfare seems alive and
             | well
        
               | BeFlatXIII wrote:
               | Sanctions are a euphemism for economic warfare.
        
             | LogonType10 wrote:
             | Funny, that's what they said before WW1.
        
               | seanw444 wrote:
               | Did they though?
        
               | mrtnmcc wrote:
               | If they did, the World Wars proved the point, such
               | conflicts are in nobody's interest.
        
               | squidlogic wrote:
               | IMO the world wars proved that MAD is the only brake on
               | open conflict.
        
               | LogonType10 wrote:
               | Was the US not better off after WW2?
        
               | bcrosby95 wrote:
               | It was better off because it didn't have its major
               | industrial cities firebombed while every other country
               | did.
        
               | FpUser wrote:
               | Bet it won't be better off after WW3. Nobody will except
               | maybe some primitive tribes in forgotten places.
        
               | LogonType10 wrote:
               | I've heard this cold war doom and gloom stuff way too
               | many times. Do you have any good reason for repeating it?
               | It sounds like the book of revelation just repackaged for
               | boomers.
        
               | dang wrote:
               | Could you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or
               | flamebait comments to HN? You've unfortunately been doing
               | this a lot, and it's not what this site is for. We're
               | trying for something other than internet default here.
               | 
               | If you wouldn't mind reviewing
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and
               | taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart,
               | we'd be grateful.
        
               | FpUser wrote:
               | >"I've heard this cold war doom and gloom stuff way too
               | many times."
               | 
               | Why would I care what you've heard. I expressed my
               | opinion. I do not need "good reason" for it. You are
               | entitled to your own. Go start the war and celebrate.
        
           | atlasunshrugged wrote:
           | Yes, I don't think it works for foreign owned entities
           | although I guess they could basically use the DPA as more of
           | a carrot for an Intel or someone to have a guaranteed
           | purchase order for X# years at a certain price for these
           | chips at a level that would be profitable for them
        
       | Shadonototra wrote:
       | But Mr Spencer is now billionaire, who cares!
        
       | iamshs wrote:
       | Intel chief: Too many chips made in Asia, 7 months ago.
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26573236
        
       | black_13 wrote:
       | IBM and their shitty software sold to DOD. The stopped improving
       | and having decent training RHAPSODY a hundred years ago.
        
       | winternett wrote:
       | Non Technical (IT & Infrastructure) people making technical
       | decisions is what may destroy the pentagon if you ask me.
       | 
       | Fraud and waste is always a concern in Government operations, but
       | if you take a real look at who is leading decision making, people
       | in those positions (including in private companies) are often
       | completely unaware of the impacts of their decisions, while their
       | advisory staff is often a team of people from a private
       | (shareholder owned) company focused on billing their clients
       | advantageously at every opportunity they get, and providing
       | advice that maintains a "constant stream of revenue".
       | 
       | It's not technology we need to fix first, it's the lack of
       | integrity and the focus on opportunistic profit applied to the
       | vary basis of the organization. The method in which contracts are
       | managed, administered, and regulated needs a major overhaul to
       | address the changing landscape of business.
       | 
       | Many mission-critical manufacturing and information service
       | operations that the military runs simply should not ever rely (in
       | any way) on privately owned and profit/shareholder-driven
       | companies because it breaks integrity and accountability.
        
       | dade_ wrote:
       | Massive consolidation is happening in every industry, IT
       | distribution to cabinet parts to industrial equipent. I think it
       | is from cheap debt allowing private equity to buy up a bunch of
       | companies, smash them together, cut the duplication and lower
       | margin parts of the business, hiking margins as they eliminated
       | competition, and then spinning them off. Debt has been so cheap,
       | they don't even need to have up front capital, just borrow and
       | profit off the deal.
       | 
       | However, it is eliminating useful and valuable products & tools,
       | disrupting lives, and making it very difficult to run a business
       | that relies on those parts.
       | 
       | This is one of the many ways endless years of emergency low
       | interest rates are destroying the economy and the livelihood of
       | many people.
        
         | gumby wrote:
         | Matt stoller has written extensively on this topic, if it
         | interests you.
        
         | ItsMonkk wrote:
         | This is the conclusion that I am coming to as well. You need to
         | pick the correct tool for the job.
         | 
         | What's the correct tool? The simplest tool that can get the job
         | done, the Principle of Least Power[0]. We often hear "Favor
         | Composition over Inheritence", but never "These are the
         | instances where Composition does not work, and Inheritence
         | needs to be used instead."[1] Rich Hickey's "Simple Made Easy"
         | shows many more examples, but this principle is very wide
         | reaching. Prefer expressions over code blocks. Prefer for over
         | while. Prefer map over for. Prefer data over functions. Prefer
         | functions over macros. Prefer monoliths over micro-services.
         | Prefer companies over governments. Prefer bikes over cars.
         | Prefer smaller teams over bigger teams.
         | 
         | It's that last one that is intriguing me. You need to ensure
         | that all of the skills that you need to be in the company are
         | there, you can leave a bit of a buffer like Kelly-sizing, and
         | then you want to optimize for that and cut as much as you can.
         | Vertical integration is just another instance of tight
         | coupling. The less people in the company, the less you need to
         | communicate, the more it can get done. You want the skills Venn
         | diagram of the team to look like the Olympic rings.
         | 
         | Social media runs into this same trap where communities grow
         | far to large. The economies of scale within the space grows and
         | even with the worsening of communication the entity gets
         | stronger with each member according to a network effect. Both
         | need some sort of dampening effect or forced splitting, but I
         | don't know yet what that is.
         | 
         | [0]: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-principle-of-least-
         | power/
        
         | DSingularity wrote:
         | Makes you wonder what the conclusion will be.
        
         | baybal2 wrote:
         | I am actually very glad that those investment wizards almost
         | completely nuked whole sectors of the semiconductor market.
         | 
         | It cleared a lot of long standing nasty monopolies, which self
         | destructed since their LBO schemes collapsed, or...
         | successfully went through, and they were sold to unwitting
         | asset manager/banker types for $$$$$, just to be chopped up
         | after they found what a load of lemons they bought.
        
           | convolvatron wrote:
           | certainly agree that there should be some kind of garbage
           | collection process that pushes established companies to
           | reinvent themselves at least a little to keep up.
           | 
           | but i really dont want to give any credit to those guys -
           | they certainly aren't discriminating - they'll eat, digest,
           | extract any salable capital and just shit out whatever is
           | left.
           | 
           | i suppose you can argue that they exert an evolutionary
           | pressure to develop an immune system (?)
        
         | thisisfine84 wrote:
         | Consolidation has been going on for decades.
         | 
         | Previously it was blue collar companies, now it's tech because
         | they own the blue collar companies.
         | 
         | Real environment consumption and simplifying necessary
         | utilities I have no problem with.
         | 
         | It's the ownership model I take issue with. We dismantled many
         | economical government systems through policy to make private
         | ones look good while the private ones purposely fuel "consume,
         | dispose" messaging.
         | 
         | Lives WILL be disrupted by climate change. No law of physics
         | guarantees anyone an American way of life. Physical reality
         | provides the info we have to work with, no matter how hard
         | politicians and willfully ignorant folks want to believe it's
         | grandpa and grandma's sacrifice that willed society into
         | existence.
        
         | silexia wrote:
         | Another huge reason is government overregulation. It takes many
         | years and millions of dollars of capital to start a bank or a
         | medical business or many other types of companies.
         | 
         | And don't forget the gigantic scam that is intellectual
         | property. Creating one small pebble of an idea that could only
         | be created because of the titanic mountain of human knowledge
         | underneath it, and then block competition and progress for
         | decades is horrifying.
        
         | spaetzleesser wrote:
         | That's just the natural way of capitalism if you allow
         | companies to get bigger and bigger. They can buy up any
         | upcoming competition for good money so most startups are being
         | built to be bought and not as standalone businesses. You see
         | that and also in medical devices where I work. Seems most
         | industries will evolve into a state where you have 2-4
         | competitors that suppress all competition by building up
         | regulatory hurdles and by their ability to buy small companies.
         | 
         | I would be in favor of massively progressive taxation of large
         | companies. I just don't see the value of them beyond a certain
         | size but I see a lot of danger accumulating so much power in
         | their hands.
        
           | AnthonyMouse wrote:
           | > Seems most industries will evolve into a state where you
           | have 2-4 competitors that suppress all competition by
           | building up regulatory hurdles and by their ability to buy
           | small companies.
           | 
           | This isn't a natural law, it's the point at which antitrust
           | stops letting them buy each other. If it wasn't for that they
           | would merge to monopoly. And that few competitors is enough
           | for them to implicitly or explicitly collude instead of
           | actually competing.
           | 
           | But it only works if barriers to entry are high. Otherwise
           | investors would see profit in going into competition with the
           | cartel. Which is why they lobby for regulatory barriers to
           | prevent that from happening.
           | 
           | > I would be in favor of massively progressive taxation of
           | large companies. I just don't see the value of them beyond a
           | certain size but I see a lot of danger accumulating so much
           | power in their hands.
           | 
           | What causes this is really the opposite, and what you're
           | suggesting would make it worse.
           | 
           | Corporate expansion is a tax deduction to corporations
           | because corporate income tax is a tax on profit and building
           | new factories etc. to expand vertical integration is a cost.
           | So they'd have more incentive to reinvest all their revenues
           | instead of paying the tax. That's how you get Amazon.
           | 
           | The real problem there is that we double tax corporations. So
           | Ian invests in Apple and his share of Apple's profits are
           | $1000. If Apple pays the money to Ian so he can go invest it
           | in a company that makes electric cars, he has to pay tax on
           | it right away, and then he has less to invest. If he leaves
           | the money inside of Apple and Apple expands into making
           | electric cars, he doesn't have to pay the tax until he sells
           | his shares and gets to earn returns on the money in the
           | meantime.
           | 
           | So then investors have a preference for share price
           | appreciation over dividends, which is equivalent to
           | preferring conglomeration over returning profits to the
           | investor to invest in independent companies. Then we get more
           | and ever-expanding huge conglomerates and less independent
           | companies that do one thing and do it well.
           | 
           | The solution is to make dividends a tax deduction to the
           | corporation. Then corporations with money they don't know
           | what to do with will do that for the tax deduction.
        
             | specialist wrote:
             | I'm fine with returning to the system of high corporate
             | income taxes, disbursing surplus to investors via
             | dividends, high corporate R&D budgets, pensions, living
             | wages, typical executive to janitor compensation ratio
             | somewhere around 40:1, sustained productivity booms, and
             | whatever other beneficial outcomes we got from the the last
             | keynesian regime.
             | 
             | I'm ambivalent about capital gains taxes on _individual_
             | investors. The rate should probably adapt dynamically, like
             | pick a target number for the gini coefficient (or whatever)
             | and ratchet the tax rate as necessary.
             | 
             | I'm completely untroubled by so-called double taxation.
             | Squint and it looks like a VAT. It makes _perfect sense_ to
             | me that most every transaction should be taxed. That 's
             | kinda the point.
        
           | thisisfine84 wrote:
           | Centralization is natural or socialism and communism, because
           | it's natural to human social agency. It literally simplifies
           | production.
           | 
           | All capitalism does is provide a legal document letting a
           | minority claim more for themselves.
        
           | LogonType10 wrote:
           | >I would be in favor of massively progressive taxation of
           | large companies
           | 
           | Say goodbye to electric cars.
        
             | spaetzleesser wrote:
             | Tesla didn't need a trillion dollar valuation to have an
             | impact on the car market. When Apple, Google or Microsoft
             | made their biggest contributions to innovation they also
             | were much smaller. Now they are just milking their market
             | position for profit without generating much innovation.
        
             | fabianhjr wrote:
             | > As of December 2020, China had the largest stock of
             | highway legal plug-in passenger cars with over 4.5 million
             | units, 42% of the global plug-in car fleet in use.[10][20]
             | China also dominates the plug-in light commercial vehicle
             | and electric bus deployment, with its stock reaching over
             | 500,000 buses in 2019, 98% of the global stock, and 247,500
             | electric light commercial vehicles, 65% of the global
             | fleet.[21]
             | 
             | Source:
             | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/New_energy_vehicles_in_China
             | 
             | The difference isn't on taxation but investment; China
             | invests way more in infrastructure and development.
             | 
             | > Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration
             | Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have
             | benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government
             | support, according to data compiled by The Times. The
             | figure underscores a common theme running through his
             | emerging empire: a public-private financing model
             | underpinning long-shot start-ups.
             | 
             | Source: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-
             | subsidies-201...
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | baybal2 wrote:
               | Taxations is definitely different. Please check what
               | Chinese tax rates are, and costs of doing business in
               | China. In short, for those who don't want to lookup it
               | themselves, it's way, way more, probably higher than even
               | most highly taxed EU countries.
               | 
               | I just 5 something years, Chinese manufacturing economy
               | became completely unrecognisable. It's a hot money game
               | now in a way US stock market will look rather decent, and
               | logical.
        
               | archibaldJ wrote:
               | Taxation in China (at least by law) is quite comparable
               | to Germany's (40+% when you reach ~$144k) but without all
               | the social benefits. Unlike Germany, there are gray areas
               | in the Chinese system where people find ways to pay less
               | tax. But there are also other cost-inducing things than
               | tax.
               | 
               | In lights of the evergrande crisis, I'm not sure how
               | efficient China's hugely state-directed investment system
               | is. And much won't be achieved had there not been Deng's
               | economic reforms and the tax indulgence that followed.
               | 
               | More than anything, high taxation stifles innovations in
               | China. What you see in China is not real innovation (in
               | the sense of inventing new things), but social-mobility
               | [1] as a consequence of authoritarianism which can result
               | in mass adoption of technologies, etc.
               | 
               | Also, considering the recent Tang Ping (Tang Ping )
               | movement, I don't think China's social-economy is
               | currently in a healthy state.
               | 
               | [1] https://andrewbatson.com/2021/10/13/mobilization-and-
               | modules...
        
               | fabianhjr wrote:
               | > recent Tang Ping (Tang Ping ) movement, I don't think
               | China's social-economy is currently in a healthy state.
               | 
               | Well, it is not like an antiwork movement has been
               | forming on the US and is gaining mainstream traction. (
               | https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/ )
               | 
               | > In lights of the evergrande crisis, I'm not sure how
               | efficient China's hugely state-directed investment system
               | is.
               | 
               | How is a private developer that overleveraged itself the
               | fault of a state that is investing in _public
               | infrastructure_ like high speed rail, nuclear reactors,
               | and tech in general? Since anything vital is public
               | property they can do what self-called capitalists in the
               | US cannot: let evergrande fail. (No private company in
               | China is "too big to fail")
        
         | not-elite wrote:
         | > This is one of the many ways endless years of emergency low
         | interest rates are destroying the economy and the livelihood of
         | many people.
         | 
         | Japan has held rates near the zero lower bound since the late
         | 1990s. If rates were the only factor, you'd expect to see the
         | same situation there.
        
           | speeder wrote:
           | You mean the country of the Zaibatsu? Where the economy is
           | stagnant for the past several years? That has several global
           | conglomerates like Sony and Toyota?
        
             | baybal2 wrote:
             | Those zabatsu are by no means stagnant. Strong yen meant
             | cheap investments for them overseas.
             | 
             | Their business empire grew N-fold, they just didn't grow in
             | Japan, but the rest of Asia.
             | 
             | Find a name of any non-Chinese blue chip company from Asia,
             | and there is good chance it has Japanese investors.
        
               | DiggyJohnson wrote:
               | > Their business empire grew N-fold, they just didn't
               | grow in Japan, but the rest of Asia.
               | 
               | I feel like that's strengthening the point you're arguing
               | against. Consider the quotes sentence alongside the
               | realities of American firms outsourcing their
               | manufacturing. Yes the firms are still juiced by American
               | investors, but there are additional concerns beyond the
               | investment capital. It affects individuals jobs,
               | industries, and economies here in America (or in Japan)
               | for large components of the economy to _happen
               | elsewhere_.
        
           | TheJoeMan wrote:
           | I'm not sure which country you're from, but Japan lost their
           | dominant position in US tech consumer goods around late
           | 1990's
        
           | dmingod666 wrote:
           | The time you refer to in Japan is also known as the 'lost
           | decade'.
        
             | 323 wrote:
             | "lost decade", how cute :)
             | 
             | > _The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to
             | 2001, but the decade from 2001 to 2011 (Lost 20 Years) and
             | the decade from 2011 to 2021 (Lost 30 Years) have been
             | included by commentators._
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades
        
         | r3trohack3r wrote:
         | This has been occupying my mind space lately.
         | 
         | I used to describe this situation as "late stage capitalism"
         | and lay the blame at capitalism's feet. I've recently done a
         | 180 on that.
         | 
         | The tangling of Copyright, Trademark, and Patent law into the
         | mega-legal structure of "intellectual property" law has had
         | devastating effects IMO.
         | 
         | The government creates and protects monopolies, and then allows
         | those monopolies to be bought and sold like playing cards. It's
         | not surprising that pools of money result in the concentration
         | of these government created monopolies.
         | 
         | This is most evident to me in healthcare. The pattern in the
         | late 2000s and 2010s was to purchase up drug companies for
         | their IP, gut the R&D, and jack up drug prices since the
         | government would enforce their monopoly - and consumers had no
         | choice since they needed the drugs. Yes this is GREED, but this
         | isn't capitalism. Capitalism would _solve_ this - but
         | government actively stands in the way of letting market
         | pressures fix that market.
        
       | i_am_proteus wrote:
       | The fab was sold to ON Semiconductor, a US concern. The US
       | government could invoke the defense production act.
       | 
       | More likely, the fab can more-profitably produce some other
       | product, and the United States would have to offer a higher price
       | to restart production.
        
         | strstr wrote:
         | Slightly off-topic, but I think you mistranslated the word for
         | corporation. I suspect you translated "Konzern" from german to
         | english's "concern". But I'm honestly unsure. In context the
         | word concern could almost work.
        
           | Amezarak wrote:
           | It is less common nowadays, but that is one of the
           | definitions of "concern" in English: a company or a
           | corporation. So it's entirely correct as is.
        
           | i_am_proteus wrote:
           | Curious indeed! Merriam-Webster tells me that one definition
           | of "concern," as a noun, is `an organization or establishment
           | for business or manufacture.`
           | 
           | But perhaps this is not in common use amongst native English
           | speakers!
        
             | kelnos wrote:
             | It's somewhat common, but probably not the most popular
             | usage. I think most people who read business news regularly
             | would see it used in sentences like, "Due to Company Foo's
             | dire financial situation, they will cease to be a going
             | concern".
        
             | strstr wrote:
             | If you check english wikipedia, it lists "Concern" as a
             | type of business structure that predominantly exists in
             | Germany[0]. The word has be pulled into english, but it's
             | definitely not a commonly used english word, and it is
             | likely pedantically inaccurate in reference to an American
             | corporation.
             | 
             | [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concern_(business)
        
             | op00to wrote:
             | Native English speaker. Well aware of concern used to
             | reflect a business.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | agency wrote:
             | I mainly see that definition used in the context of the
             | phrase "going concern"
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_concern
        
       | setpatchaddress wrote:
       | What happened to the requirement to second-source semiconductors?
        
         | mpyne wrote:
         | Same thing that happened to the requirement to code DoD
         | software only in Ada: the requirement was scrapped when it
         | became obvious the marketplace had shifted so much that the DoD
         | would have to choose between second-sourcing obsolete gear or
         | staying current with technology the market was postured to
         | deliver.
        
           | bsvgywer wrote:
           | There is absolutely no legal reason that the DoD can't take
           | Intel/AMD/Whomever's designs to alternative manufacturers.
           | Unfortunately in the name of making the richest among us
           | richer, our leadership hardly exercises the DoD's blanket
           | license of all things patented. Along the same lines, we no
           | longer break up companies that dominate their industry,
           | giving us fewer choices for alternative manufacturers.
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | Maybe no legal reason but there is a technical reason: a
             | chip designed for a specific manufacturing process (e.g.
             | IBM Cu-32) can only be made on that process and there may
             | only be one fab that can run the process. The chip would
             | have to be somewhat redesigned to be manufactured
             | elsewhere.
        
             | ectopod wrote:
             | Does the DoD have the right to demand designs and knowhow
             | from Intel and AMD? Patents alone are really not much use.
        
               | Supermancho wrote:
               | In the name of national security, I would hope so. Why
               | wouldn't it? US Companies don't mean much if there's no
               | US behind it.
               | 
               | The issue is there is no overt war to drive the
               | nationalism support necessary to push people into freely
               | transferring knowledge. It seems to magically appear,
               | when there's a feeling of imminent danger but ppl
               | question it in times of peace.
        
             | xxpor wrote:
             | Are you sure they still do? Since 2015, patents are
             | property for 5th amendment purposes:
             | https://cip2.gmu.edu/2015/06/22/supreme-court-recognizes-
             | tha...
        
         | moring wrote:
         | What parts of a modern system _can_ even be second-sourced?
        
       | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
       | Death by 1000 greedy cuts.
        
       | 323 wrote:
       | Pentagon should just order it's chips from China.
       | 
       | It should also move vehicle assembly there, it's much cheaper.
       | 
       | In fact, they should outsource everything outside it's core
       | competency - strategy.
        
         | MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
         | Don't worry, the USA will soon have TM at the top of it with an
         | "Owned by China" so we won't even need to do it. We'll just be
         | forced to!
        
         | rvba wrote:
         | Death by PowerPoint?
        
       | TomAbel wrote:
       | The Asianometry newsletter wrote a really insightful newsletter
       | about the US Government's Semiconductor Chip Buying Problem[1]
       | (He also has Youtube video[2] you can watch on the same
       | newsletter)
       | 
       | In the newsletter and video he talks about the US's Trusted
       | Foundry Program and the different pitfalls and challenges that
       | came with the program.
       | 
       | [1]https://asianometry.substack.com/p/the-government-
       | semiconduc...
       | 
       | [2]The US Military's Semiconductor Buying Problem
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSNhk4TflKA
        
         | andromeduck wrote:
         | I think the USG could definitely do at least the design side of
         | a M1 like series of chips that cover 80-90% of their needs but
         | yeah idk how we could make the US industry competitive again
         | when Intel has dropped the ball so hard.
        
         | dmingod666 wrote:
         | Very smart and in-depth content, people here would love it.
        
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