[ExI] Trump Is Doubling Down on His Disastrous A.I. Chip Policy

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> 
Sent: Sunday, 21 December, 2025 3:15 AM
To: spike at rainier66.com
Cc: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] Trump Is Doubling Down on His Disastrous A.I. Chip Policy

 

On Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 7:49 AM <spike at rainier66.com <mailto:spike at rainier66.com> > wrote:

 

> The capability of manufacturing advanced chips is easier than designing the chips.

 

>…I'm not at all certain that's true. I tried to get a more detailed understanding of how ASML's new $400 million High Numerical Aperture EUV Lithography Machine works but the damn thing is so complicated it makes my head hurt thinking about it…

 

ASML is in the Netherlands.  The second and third major lithography companies, Nikon and Canon are Japanese.  Those countries are safe, for now.  They make the equipment which makes the processors.

 

We have known for some time that war with China is coming.  The military is in the business of making sure we are never dependent upon an enemy for critical materials or equipment.  The Taiwanese are not the only people on the planet who understand how to manufacture advanced microprocessors.  They are good at it, but not the only ones.

 

 

>… And neither ASML nor TSMC are American companies, although I own stock in both….

 

Well done.  Hold both.

 

> That depends on how many Taiwanese processor designers get out of Taiwan ahead of the attack.  It feels like we have a lot of them already.  More are arriving constantly.  They get fast-tracked to citizenship.

 

>…Today that could happen only if the immigrant had a "Trump Gold Card"….

 

That is A way to immigrate, but not the only way.  People who come with either a pile of money or critical knowledge of something the USA really needs can be fast tracked to citizenship or (more likely) can get an indefinite work permit.  Elon brought in a bunch of manufacturing engineers from India to work the Tesla factory that way.  Some eventually get citizenship.  Our local Science Olympiad team has gone from zero to hero in the past decade because of the Indians.

 

Immigrating with credentials is waaaay easier than immigrating without.  The USA wants high skill people from abroad, people with technical degrees and advanced tech skills, not more truck drivers.

 

>…and that costs one million dollars. If that had been the policy in 1973 then Jensen Huang would never have been able to move to the USA, and today Nvidia would be a Chinese company. And we would be screwed…. John K Clark 

 

 

Nvidia could not start or grow in China.  Those kinds of companies need to be in the USA, where information flows, companies compete, and there are two big oceans on either side with big old nuclear submarines in them and a government which keeps its grubby paws off of businesses as much as practical.

 

What is going on now is quiet but important.  The USA is quietly setting up a technology force, which is really a way of recruiting talent and training people to make critical electronics equipment.  They aren’t giving us details on what they are doing, but the military has its ways of making sure it always has what it needs.  

  

 

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