If only there was something like a chip act that the government could have provided that capital….

Yes, but also cartel behavior. Those same 3 manufacturers have been found guilty of it in the past, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they were fixing prices again now. See this video by Gamers Nexus.

Of all companies, though, Microsoft is one of the few who could easily afford to sink a few billion into starting in-house chip production.

And even if they only ever produce chips for their own products, they'll still probably come out ahead in the long run, because of all the money they'll save on not paying inflated prices for others' chips to use in Microsoft hardware.

That 'in the long run' part is the problem, though. Corps can never see beyond the next quarterly earnings report. An investment that will take years to pay off ... that's just out of the question.

A lot of lithography equipment for the top tier stuff is made by 1 supplier

So maybe invest in that and become another top-tier supplier of lithography equipment?

Fun fact...the chip maker and the calculator company are completely seperate. Don't really know why it's fun but well it is a fact.

They're already selling silicone designed twenty years ago at absurd markup, so Texas Instruments has no need to jeopardize that with the AI fad.

Yes, then they'll be shortage resistant

Eh ... even with the popping of the AI bubble, the long-term future is bright for any new chip manufacturer. The world is only becoming more and more electronic, with more and more gadgets needing advanced chips. When the AI bubble goes boom, demand may temporarily drop, but in the long term demand will rise overall.

Why state owned, when they can have privately owned and just funnel your tax money right into it, then retire to take up cushy "consultancy" positions on the board?

The semiconductor/memory chip production side wouldn't sell the chips to the consumer electronics side, because it's more profitable to sell and feed to the genAI side of the business.

Samsung is a Korean jaebeol. It's a massive conglomerate all owned by the one family, but each department operates very independently and is incentivised largely to maximise its own profit independent of the rest of the conglomerate.

The problem is artificial, because 95% of all this 'AI' is useless, pointless, and a massive waste of resources. Nobody asked for it, and practically nobody is using it.

Even in cases where a chatbot is helpful, a small, local model is more than enough. Not a single soul needs a 50T parameter model for anything. Nobody on the planet uses AI image enhancement or item removal.

Almost all of this shit is purely made to inflate the bubble, and serves no other purpose. All the while ruining many other industries, people's hobbies, ease of finding factual information online, etc.

The problem is artificial, because it was created pretty much deliberately, for no particular reason other than profit.

But does anyone need ai companies?

The headline is claiming that. You can't just lie and then walk it back once someone clicks. There is a limit to how much inaccuracy you can put into a headline to simplify it, and this is definitely past it. To save one word they make it this wrong.