27 Comments
User's avatar
Richard's avatar

OK but can we do Google, Microsoft and Meta first.

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Lincoln Patience's avatar

This!

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Greg's avatar

I’m not fond of nor prone to government market interference. But this seems a fairly compelling case.

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Steven Hill's avatar

Oren, how does the fact that President Trump has demanded and received a 15% cut of NVIDIA revenue from sales of high end semi-conductors to China affect this? The Trump White House, like Biden, said "no sales to China" for national security reasons, but once he got the 15% share...suddenly national security takes a back seat? What's going on here?

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Eric Dane Walker's avatar

"But monopoly and its attendant market power frustrate the theoretical assumptions for how free markets should operate, instead creating the means, the motive, and the opportunity for anti-competitive practices that maximize one firm’s profits at the expense of investment, innovation, and consumer welfare."

Indeed, but the rest of your essay implicitly suggests the most important reason monopoly power is bad: it gives undue political power to monopolists.

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Matt Stoller's avatar

Good luck.

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Ted Baiamonte's avatar

I think we should all thank God for Nvidia and even subsidize it so that we will be on top against China going forward for the next very critical 20 years. This is the last time on earth you want government bureaucrats fiddling with a great great company like in Nvidia on which we may be totally dependent for our survival.

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A Boss's avatar

20 years? What are you smoking ? 5 years tops

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Ted Baiamonte's avatar

If you have any idea what that means why don't you try to share it with us?

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George Shay's avatar

That is one dumbass idea.

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Matt Stoller's avatar

Either Nvidia needs to be broken up and Trump's policy on Nvidia as an institution is problematic or "Trump has not hesitated to use federal power to confront institutions that undermine the national interest."

A right populist project that cannot admit to this incoherence is doomed.

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Jesse The Conservative's avatar

History is replete with examples of Liberals attempting to destroy companies whom they deemed as “monopolies”—only to see competition come in and rearrange the market. Remember…they once tried to break up Sears—which is out of business. They once hated Walmart too—then along came Amazon. Leave Nvidia alone. The market will always sort things out.

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ted kensington's avatar

It would be interesting to know who is Oren Cass' client here for whom he is lobbying or representing. There was no subpoena served on NVDA. As an anti-trust lawyer he should know that there is no more here than there was vs. IBM and Alphabet, if tnat. Yhis is a silly article by a skilled lawyer with an undisclosed client, and if so, an undisclosed conflct which is not footnoted.

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ted kensington's avatar

It would be interesting to know who is Oren Cass' client here for whom he is lobbying or representing. There was no subpoena served on NVDA. As an anti-trust lawyer he should know that there is no more here than there was vs. IBM and Alphabet, if tnat. Yhis is a silly article by a skilled lawyer with an undisclosed client, and if so, an undisclosed conflct which is not footnoted.

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ted kensington's avatar

It would be interesting to know who is Oren Cass' client here for whom he is lobbying or representing. There was no subpoena served on NVDA. As an anti-trust lawyer he should know that there is no more here than there was vs. IBM and Alphabet, if tnat. Yhis is a silly article by a skilled lawyer with an undisclosed client, and if so, an undisclosed conflct which is not footnoted.

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ted kensington's avatar

It would be interesting to know who is Oren Cass' client here for whom he is lobbying or representing. There was no subpoena served on NVDA. As an anti-trust lawyer he should know that there is no more here than there was vs. IBM and Alphabet, if tnat. Yhis is a silly article by a skilled lawyer with an undisclosed client, and if so, an undisclosed conflct which is not footnoted.

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Thomas Larkin's avatar

It doesn't seem that a company that increases its net worth by a factor of four in two years is deferring innovation and moving to rent seeking. Also if TSMC makes the chips, how is splitting Nvidia into three separate companies (and into three separate R&D facilities) going to increase innovation? As an attorney with two technical degrees and a management science degree who has practiced anti-trust law, this article makes no sense, particularly considering the short time frame. I think, considering the potential competition, that Nvidia stock is massively overpriced. Even $100 billion profits do not remotely justify a $4 trillion capitalization. Also, AI itself is massively overhyped. Once AI makes a allegedly perfect widget, who is going to pay AI to upgrade that widget.

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Keuka girl's avatar

I am not okay with the lack of ethics of Nvidia. Greed is so common. I would rather not get an amazing return from a stock that gets bad grades in the ethics area. Could be they find ways behind the scenes to cheat the stockholders.

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Karl's avatar
Sep 18Edited

As Jay rightly points out, multiple media outlets have reported on Don's crypto corruption, from the NYT to the WSJ. Since you believe they're all left leaning and wrong, can you point us to the reporting you follow on these matters.

Meanwhile, we'll look forward to you and Oren supporting a future Democratic president pocketing billions while selling out the national interest. In retrospect, why did Don's cult get so upset over Hunter selling a few pieces of bad art for a million bucks? Here in flyover country, we'd call Hunter a piker:)

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Jay K.'s avatar

You can dismiss the NYT if you want, but multiple outlets have reported on Trump’s self-dealing with the UAE, Nvidia chip exports, and crypto scams. The real question is: are you saying that isn’t corruption?

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Keuka girl's avatar

and you trust the "facts" of the NY Times? Commonplace is a bit more trustworthy. NY Times has slanted journalism, and has trouble getting the facts right repeatedly.

If you have two other media outlets that are not leftist leaning, then the article may have some credibility. Good luck!

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Keuka girl's avatar

oops! I meant if two other media outlets state similar facts and have proof of the facts, then the NY Times article may have some credibility...

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