From Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #1568:
Memo to Howard Lutnick: Uncle Sam Isn’t a Hedge Fund
This is getting out of control.
The Federal Government just bought a near billion dollar stake in seven semiconductor companies.
This comes on the heels of at least a dozen other companies the U.S. government has taken equity in.
They even used money from Biden’s Chips Act slush fund – which should have been disbanded – to finance the deals. Who do these government smarty-pants think they are? Warren Buffett?
These are the companies that made the dubious decision to become partially state-owned:
- GlobalFoundries will receive up to $300 million to accelerate the domestic research and development of co-packaged optics by two to three years. By integrating photonics directly alongside AI processors, this technology will deliver ultra-fast, energy-efficient computing to reinforce U.S. leadership in AI infrastructure.
- Kepler will receive up to $245 million for R&D to develop in the U.S. a new class of high-performance AI memory technology enabled by innovative 3D and ferroelectric technologies.
- Multibeam Corporation will receive up to $140 million to develop advanced packaging technology to assemble and stack multiple chips and connect them with thousands of wires, which will enable more advanced systems necessary for AI and other advanced computing applications.
- Extropic will receive up to $75 million to develop thermodynamic sampling units (TSUs) which use natural thermal fluctuations to probabilistically solve complex problems spanning simulation, optimization, and AI, at a fraction of the energy consumed by conventional computing approaches.
- Thintronics will receive up to $50 million to develop ultra-low-loss inter-layer dielectrics required for next-generation semiconductor interconnects and advanced packaging in high-performance compute, AI, and networking infrastructure.
- OBSIDIA Semiconductors will receive up to $34 million for R&D to deliver non-invasive counterfeit and malicious component identification systems to ensure provenance and traceability in secure supply chains for AI and advanced electronics.
- Aeluma will receive up to $30 million to develop large diameter, indium-phosphide-free substrate technology used to fabricate photodetectors and lasers for AI photonic interconnects
How many Solyndras and Fiskers do we have to lose taxpayer money on before Washington admits they can’t beat the market and that we’d probably be better off if they took the money to Vegas and bet on the roulette wheel?
Here’s our advice. Take the corporate welfare money that is burning a hole in the pockets of the Commerce Department and use it to pay off some of our $39 trillion national debt.
