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Sale of IBM's Chip-Making Business To GlobalFoundries To Get US Security Review
dcblogs writes IBM is an officially sanctioned trusted supplier to the U.S. Defense Dept., and the transfer of its semiconductor manufacturing to GlobalFoundries, a U.S.-based firm owned by investors in Abu Dhabi, will get U.S. scrutiny. Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. John Adams, who authored a report last year for an industry group about U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities and national security, said regulators will have to look closely. "I don't want cast aspersions unnecessarily on Abu Dubai — but they're not Canada," said Adams "I think that the news that we may be selling part of our supply chain for semiconductors to a foreign investor is actually bad news."
You mean Abu Dhabi? Dice, fire Timothy at once!
How long are you going to keep pretending that you are doing anything other than sinking into irrelevance?
If you don't make anything, and you have to buy it from the global market ... do you really still think you're innovating and pioneering?
Or will you finally realize your corporations are destroying your economy, and leaving you as a bunch of whiny bitches sitting on the sidelines still thinking you're awesome?
"We're selling part of our supply chain"? Who is "we"? Is the Government owning IBM now?
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no private company would want to work with government, because the government would want to get the maximum benefit for the least price
That is no different from selling to any other customer
If the government has any objections then the government should buy it.
One of the things I have in the cobwebs of my brain is that IBM does or did manufacture mainframes and POWER systems that were assembled entirely in the US and had a known trail for all the non-US components. This was for government/military customers who required the security of at least on-shore assembly. Now that a foreign company is going to be controlling IBM's fabs, maybe that's why the deal is getting scrutiny.
I hope we don't end up in another world war situation where our supply chains get cut off, but you never know sometimes. Imagine what kind of trouble we would be in if all of a sudden we cut off all trade with China. In order to not cause disruption, we would basically have to restart manufacturing of everything in the country overnight. Actually, that might not be a bad idea since we hardly make anything here anymore. The other good reason would be that it would finally make the average citizen feel the pinch of a wartime economy. WW2 was the last time full-scale rationing of consumer goods was required, as well as the nationalization of industrial capacity. Vietnam was the last time a mandatory military draft was needed. Since then, all the conflicts have been kind of shrugged off by the average person since it didn't affect them.
I know, global economy and all that, but I do see things getting a little messy when automation takes away the majority of jobs in this country, and limits the growth potential for all developing countries.
That started with Reagan, who was happy to buy Saudi Oil rather than try and change the USA's energy picture. Sure. No security issue there.
So now we're selling our chip-making infrastructure. But what's one more attack vector? We're already dependent on chips made in China and software coded in India. I guess having our supplies cut off by Abu Dhabi couldn't be much worse.
It's all about moneyed interests. Countries are an illusion designed to keep the little people from revolting, which will continue to work until there's not enough affordable oil to keep cheap food, entertainment and drugs coming down the pipeline. After that, all bets are off.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
No, the government's job is infrastructure, and other things that can be described as natural monopolies. If the start-up costs for a business are in the tens- to hundreds-of-billions, there isn't going to be much in the way of competition no matter what the industry is. If it's actually vital that said industry exists, it makes sense to nationalize it.
However, if competition is possible, it should be encouraged. There's no reason to nationalize SecureWidgetCo if a dozen people could take their place tomorrow, even if they only sell to the government.
It's clear that if the US Government wants to be sure of its chip supply, it needs to be in business for itself. The ultimate reason is not however that it's inherently inefficient for the government to enter into contracts with private companies, but that large scale microchip fabrication is so expensive that no (private, US) company is willing to do it.
P.S. With respect, if your response to this is that natural monopolies do not exist, please save yourself the trouble of responding.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
I did a bit of work for NASA a couple years ago and per ITAR regulations, as a foreign national, I was not allowed to read the code I was writing. I'm serious.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
And split into 3 vertically parallel companies. Then push these companies for new ideas and innovations. Seriously, for this to work, we need to restore competition which requires multiple companies. Likewise, we to do a COTS approach with them. One item in desperate need is new networking equipment that was not manufactured in China.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.