The Trump Administration seems to be offering empty promises of protection for Intel and others from foreign competition in the artificial intelligence sector.
Shares of Intel closed up 6% on Tuesday after Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. will safeguard American artificial intelligence technologies from “theft and misuse” by adversaries.
“Some authoritarian regimes have stolen and used AI to strengthen their military intelligence and surveillance capabilities, capture foreign data and create propaganda to undermine other nations’ national security,” Vance said in a keynote address at the Paris AI summit. “This administration will block such efforts, full stop.”
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The article doesn’t really go on to say much beyond those opening paragraphs. Which is the point here. Nobody really seems to have a good read on what the Trump Administration is going to do about Intel and domestic tech manufacturing in general. I believe that would be because they don’t actually have a plan.
I believe they’re waffling around and blaming the Biden Administration simply because… well… It’s Biden and Biden = bad.
And while the speech was aimed at China, the implications were meant for American manufacturers and AI development in general. Investors took the comment to mean that there would be some form of protectionism for Intel which I frankly don’t believe. I think because of the lack of any solid plan the Trump Administration’s comments should be seen as empty promises.
All that they’ve made clear is that Republicans apparently don’t like the CHIPS Act because, boohoo, it provides direct financial assistance to companies instead of abstract support.
If the Trump Administration’s plans are to protect American tech manufacturing through tariffs instead of direct financial support they are fools. Semiconductor manufacturing has a global supply chain and blanket tariffs like the Trump Administration has proposed will actually hurt US manufacturers by making their inputs more expensive and leading to a higher price for their finished product, which will inevitably reduce demand.
I don’t know what’s happening anymore, there’s too much news for any single person to digest. Good luck out there everyone.