Intel’s Chip Moonshot Is About Supremacy, Not Profit

Intel’s Chip Moonshot Is About Supremacy, Not Profit

He may not be the leader of the free world, but Pat Gelsinger has just put himself at the helm of the Great American Revival amid a technology cold war that the US is paranoid it will lose.

In an online presentation Tuesday afternoon, Intel Corp.'s new chief executive officer committed the California-based chipmaker to regaining semiconductor supremacy after losing the edge to rivals in Asia. He said he's going to spend $20 billion on two new factories in Arizona and is in talks to set up another two in Europe. Even bigger checks will be cut in coming years.

This is the kind of hustle the nation needs from a company whose former leader, Andy Grove, once penned a book titled, "Only The Paranoid Survive.“ Intel's woes are an allegory for the state of the American chip industry. Once the leader, production troubles and inferior technology has seen the company fall behind foreign rivals. Now it's stuck watching as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the Yuri Gagarin of chips, takes flight.

With Taiwan and South Korea already ahead and China catching up, Gelsinger is taking the role of a modern-day John F. Kennedy in leading the US back to its former role as