IBM Bailouts and the IBM People Inside the Administration
Last week: Government Bailouts Won't be Enough to Save IBM
Bailouts are 'free money'; the taxpayers are forced to pay billionaires. They don't get to vote on it or ever veto this.
Some minutes ago someone pointed out a report from an IBM-connected network. It is not flattering to IBM, for a change. To quote: "the biggest chunk of money would go to a company that likely wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the government’s backing. Anderon will be set up with a billion dollars each from IBM and the government and will inherit personnel and IP from IBM. It will serve as a foundry for fabricating quantum processing units and will contract its services out to IBM and any other company that wants access to cutting-edge hardware. [...] “This announcement is illegal and troubling on so many levels,” Lofgren said one day after the announcement, pointing out that the money being used for the deal comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed during the Biden administration and was allocated “specifically for microelectronics R&D, with a focus on semiconductor technology.”
We wrote about this the other day (Anderon and the history of similar promises made by Cheeto). Is this pledge vapourware or are only the products vapourware? Maybe both? As someone put it: "Congress challenging legality of this Quantum investment [...] It clearly falls outside the confines of the CHIP Act intent. Article also points out how utterly ridiculous the idea of a "quantum chip foundry" is in 2026."
IBM has promised this for decades already. It never came. "Glad to someone in Congress is standing up to check the legality of what has been proposed by the Trump administration for what is a pie-in-the-sky, knee je-k attempt to maintain a lead in the non-existent area of Quantum chip manufacture," an early comment said, pointing at IBM's Darío Gil inside the Cheeto administration. "If the crooked Dario Gil is behind pushing $1 billion dollars into IBM's pockets, you can be sure IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is also behind the scheme. After all, Arvind negotiated Dario's placement and position into the Trump administration, so there has to be payback at some point. This could be a bad investment for the US government, and of course IBM management will slither away when things go down the toilet. Just look at what happened to Watson Healthcare under the guidance of Gin 'n Tonic Rometty. It ended belly up. The same is likely to happen with Anderon where Arvind's cronies will bail out once the going gets rough and nothing of any significant scientific or technological value materializes from the venture. Think negative because there is no such Quantum chip in existence at present - even as a prototype."
There is also a recollection of what happened before: "Based on past history, for any investment in IBM, the following applies - "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." If moving forward, the Government and Congress need to make sure their investment is protected against theft and loss, by making sure there are regular audits on progress of these so called Quantum chips. Dario and Arvind are fair weather executives, here today, gone tomorrow. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is."
It seems possible/plausible that it is bailout money down the drain or that this money will never arrive at all. It did, however, help IBM dodge its new 52-week low. At least temporarily. █