Flip side: why would Apple, Amazon, Google, AMD, NVIDIA etc build their own when they can outsource it cheaper?

Companies are run to make a profit… they don’t care about sovereignty as long as the money is coming in.

Because it’s extremely lucrative and strategically valuable to the US

> Because it’s extremely lucrative

It could be extremely lucrative if they get it right.

Simply trying to copy TSMC would also be a poor strategy.

Companies have "core competencies" (or should). The manufacture (not design) of high-end silicon has never been one for any of these companies except Intel, and they have just lost big time.

> strategically valuable to the US

Yeah, they don't care.

… but the shareholders are global?! That’s not really a compelling argument unless you made it a requirement that all major/strategic companies must have 100% domestic ownership!

BUT - all you then need to do is create a Delaware LLC that buys the strategic stock, which is owned by $SCARY_FOREIGNERS

I agree but by the same logic intel could have done it and didn’t manage to so far.

Intel couldn’t because the science is too hard to do with the scale of only your own designs. Intel had to stop competing with their own designs and open up their fabs like tsmc.