Gov't money in 2024 came with a sharp prohibition: no expansion of "advanced technology" facilities in China or Russia for 10 years. For multinational firms like Microchip Technology, this meant choosing between federal funds and their Shanghai assembly line. Many chose the latter, leaving money on the table.
A semiconductor equipment startup told TechCrunch that their CHIPS application required 14,000 pages of documentation. "We hired 30 people just to manage compliance," the CEO said. "That’s not innovation; that’s rent-seeking." What 2024 Taught Us The era of government as clumsy bystander is over. In 2024, federal money became the de facto industrial policy for deep tech. Private VCs will not fund a $10 billion fab. They will not wait 7 years for a geothermal project. Only the state has that horizon. govt money 2024 tech
Why the flood? Three converging crises forced the state back to the lab: supply chain fragility (post-Covid), national security (US-China decoupling), and climate change (the Inflation Reduction Act’s second year). Not all "govt money" is equal. In 2024, three sectors swallowed the majority of the pie: Gov't money in 2024 came with a sharp
But this creates a new paradox: When the government is your largest LP (Limited Partner), does innovation serve the market or the national interest? The firms that thrived in 2024 learned to answer "both"—building compliance into their roadmap, not bolting it on at the end. A semiconductor equipment startup told TechCrunch that their