16-month investigation by US 'house subcommittee' of Big Tech, excerpts 400 page report for our understanding:
who includes big tech:
1/apple
2/amazon
3/google
4/facebook
investigation based on:
1\hearings
2\testimony
3\>million documents
1/n
charges common to all:
1/monopoly
2/threaten core economy
3/political liberties
4/deals to swallow rivals
5/sell at loss to hurt competitors
specific charge on apple:
-use its control over apps to squeeze excessive fees out of app developers who pass those costs to users
2/n
specific charge on amazon:
-use dominant share of online retail to unfairly compete with outside sellers using its platform
specific charge on facebook:
-acquiring companies, including Instagram & WhatsApp, in order to snuff out growing competitors.
3/n
specific charge on google:
-use dominant share of search market to entrench its own position, advantage its own products & take over other markets like maps & advertising
recommendations:
1\improve antitrust enforcement
2\enhance federal antitrust statutes
4/n
3\increase funding for agencies
4\bring the antimonopoly toolkit
5\suggest structural separation or divestiture
1/Type of setups:
-full spectrum
-design & fabrication
-design only
-foundries that manufacture chips designed by others
2/Skills needed:
-high end engineering
-physics
-material science
-top end manufacturing
3/Leaders in this space being:
-Taiwan
-Korea
-China
-Japan
-US
-few others
4/India has experience in some electronics manufacturing
5/Import of electronics is second only to Oil
6/We are feeding our arch competitors in importing chips
7/Full spectrum chip manufacturing setup needs ~10B+ $
8/National initiatives falling behind for want of chips
-defense
-space
-computing
-telecom
-medical