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0 pointsimpossiblefork7mo ago0 comments

Also, w.r.t. the politically connected thing: that's something the company tries to play at, but they aren't actually politically connected.

Thiel is, and if he is to realise something political with these guys, then he can only do so if they aren't fraudsters but are actually doing sensible things, or the political project fails. It can of course also be a fakeout for negotiations "we'll have an ASML clone tomorrow, you don't have any leverage" even though they don't, but I don't think so, because if you tried that fakeout on an EU politician, they'll talk to their guys 'is it true?' and those guys will actually ask people at AMSL "is this is a real competitor?"

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bee_rider7mo ago

I think they can still be fraudsters while being politically useful; the story just needs to stay together for a bit over a year to be useful for the last election that Trump will ever care about (2028 midterms, since he’s term limited), or three years to keep help out Thiel’s guy Vance.

It doesn’t have to be a centerpiece or anything, so it probably doesn’t have to stand up to much scrutiny from the general public. Like if the government gives them some little grants, they’ll have enough cover to include “revitalizing and onshoring US semiconductors” or whatever in a speech. The press here is not very aggressive about these sorts of claims.

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