I HOPE IT WORKS BETTER THAN AMTRAK: Intel’s Move Toward Nationalization Won’t Work—at Least for the Long Haul.

Most of the world’s most cutting-edge chips are manufactured in Taiwan—a growing flashpoint for tensions between the U.S. and China. Major U.S. companies including Apple and Nvidia rely on those chips for their products and would face severe economic hardship if a war choked off their supply. For all its problems, Intel is the only U.S.-based company capable of manufacturing cutting-edge chips.

So the government’s interest in Intel as a national-security matter is real. But taking a stake in the company could have vast unintended consequences, especially given Trump’s recent propensity for trying to exert direct influence over private business decisions. His call for Tan’s ouster was only one such example in the past week. He also demanded—and got—Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to agree to fork over 15% of the revenues they make selling AI chips into China.

Even partial government ownership of Intel could put that unwelcome trend into overdrive. It would add to the levers Trump—or any future president—can pull to manipulate how private companies behave, something governments tend to be bad at.

The government might for instance pressure chip designers like Nvidia, AMD or Qualcomm to manufacture with Intel, perhaps as a condition for getting export licenses for China.

Read the whole thing.