According to Reuters, Team Trump is now sizing up not just Intel, but Micron, Samsung and TSMC, all of which have bagged hefty CHIPS Act subsidies. The idea is simple if you want taxpayer billions, Uncle Sam gets a seat at the table without voting rights.

What we’re seeing is a capitalism fairy tale gone sour. Private companies that once bragged about the “free market” and “innovation” now need the government to buy in just to keep fabs running. Wall Street, true to form, is already sulking. Intel shares dipped in after-hours trading once it became clear that Washington’s patronage wouldn’t be exclusive.

It’s hard not to see the irony. For decades, chip giants preached market discipline and warned about the dangers of state meddling. Now, after years of botched execution and supply chain cock-ups, they’re lining up for handouts that look suspiciously like the first steps of nationalisation.

Trump dresses it up as taxpayer value “why give away billions with nothing in return?” but the reality is that the world’s most powerful capitalist economy is admitting it can’t rely on private enterprise alone to safeguard a strategic industry. If this is capitalism’s victory lap, it looks a lot like a state buyout.

Micron, Samsung and TSMC may soon find themselves in the same awkward position as Chipzilla: rescued by a government that never stops preaching free markets, while proving that in semiconductors at least, capitalism has failed.