Arguably the alternative was the government just... not giving them the CHIPS Act money. (And there's certainly a point to be made that Trump altering the deal is... problematic.)

But I will say, I find the concept that when we invest public dollars in a private company, the public retains a stake appealing. I think about the strategic oil reserve, and how the government actually can make money by buying and selling oil to the open market. The idea that if we inject money into a company to help our domestic industries, that the government can sell it's stake back out at a later time is appealing.

(And again, to be clear, not a Republican or a Trumper here, and I assume in Trump fashion he will find some way to screw everyone involved and get paid himself personally... but the concept of the government acquiring a stake rather than just giving them a grant is on it's face... maybe not terrible?)

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russellbeattie 3 days ago | parent [-]

We haven't invested any public dollars into Intel, we just took 10% of it.

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BeetleB 3 days ago | parent [-]

The US government is paying about $9B to Intel for this (on top of the $2B already paid).

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russellbeattie 2 days ago | parent [-]

> "About $7.8 billion had been been pledged to Intel under the incentives program, but only $2.2 billion had been funded so far. Another $3.2 billion of the government investment is coming through the funds from another program called “Secure Enclave.”"

The funds were already going to Intel. Trump just decided to demand 10% of the company for the already earmarked incentive programs. It was pure extortion.

	▲	BeetleB a day ago \| parent [-]
		> The funds were already going to Intel. That's not a given - even under Biden: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44993388