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Sure, but the US gov't provided no seed money or had any role otherwise in founding of Intel, unlike TSMC. Up until recently the US chips companies were pretty much on their own without much special pampering. TSMC has little or no desire to expand beyond their tiny island -- not only b/c of the gov't investment's national stake in TSMC, but also TSMC's business model doesn't work -- and certainly can't maintain its fat profit marign -- without gov't largess and econ protection.