White House administration set to be paid $10B for brokering TikTok deal (theguardian.com)

mrtksn 10 hours ago

This racketeering can serve as a model for tech independence across the globe. Everyone can force Meta/Google/twitter to sell their local businesses to local owners and the government get a payout.

I can’t believe the US took this route. EU is still trying to force open markets and rules based system but the future is gang rule.

stale2002 10 hours ago

Not really. This only works because the US market is valuable. A tech company can simply leave the market rather than sell. Just like tiktok would have been free to shut down in the USA.

The USA market belongs to the US, though, and other people are free to play by the rules or simply leave.

mrtksn 10 hours ago

Have you looked at the financial reports of those companies recently? US is the largest revenue stream but nowhere dominant.

USA is headed to have companies that used to serve 3-5 billion people markets to shrink to 0.35 billion market. US also doesn’t produce that much, unlike EU and China so when this system breaks those 0.35 billion people aren’t going to be as valuable as today.

Open regime change calls, attempts to manipulate elections, trying to start civil wars - it’s brewing.

The software industry is about to be decimated by AI anyway and US isn’t ahead in AI in any meaningful sense. When the status quo shatters there’s a good chance that tech would not be American industry anymore. The hardware too is made in China with European tooling. USA used to have an amazing brand but that’s being destroyed at outstanding pace.

Just like the way tech workers should have revolted against WFH instead of embracing it, the tech capitalist should also revolt against the breaking of the order. Both are extremely short sighted.

stale2002 7 hours ago

> it’s brewing.

Brewing, always brewing. Never measurable results.

> The software industry is about to be decimated by AI anyway and US isn’t ahead in AI in any meaningful sense.

The US has been far ahead, in terms of actual companies being made actually. China has some models, sure, but the EU is nothing. I have never heard less about the EU and their companies than in the last few years.

All talk, no results. Always years away, but never now.

mrtksn 5 hours ago

I'm afraid things no longer are going to be the same

TacticalCoder 9 hours ago

> US also doesn’t produce that much, unlike EU and China

China OK. But a criticism we hear all the time inside the EU is that manufacturing is gone and that the number one export of the number one economy in the EU --that'd be cars from Germany-- are taking a serious beat up atm.

> The software industry is about to be decimated by AI anyway and US isn’t ahead in AI in any meaningful sense.

How is it not? China has some models but it's basically US, US, and more US: Google, Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI... With chips made by NVidia and Google. So US and still more US. Is that not basically it?

The EU loves to posture a lot but until I see that turd that Windows is kicked out of all the EU institutions and Microsoft Office replaced for good by something else, I'm not believing it.

> USA used to have an amazing brand but that’s being destroyed at outstanding pace.

USA has 35 of the 50 biggest companies in the world ranked by market cap. China has 6 and the EU has... One! (Switzerland ain't the EU). One company for the EU in the top 50: that's ASML and even that is very mainly US owned.

I think you give the EU way too much credit and the US way too little.

orwin 40 minutes ago

Comparing country by market cap will always favours the US while oil is traded in dollars, especially since passive investment is so big and dollar debt is so big. You ought to compare them on efficiency and/or profitability.

If you really want to compare the biggest companies while including investors preferences (which mechanically favours the US, but it's fine in your case, your point is about US advantages, and the dollar is a big one), to account for AI and 'tech' (Tesla), EV/EBITDA is probably what you're looking for

Jimmc414 10 hours ago

edit to tone down the accusatory tone of my previous comment. In retrospect, the post was likely derailed due to a subthread discussion that appears to have been flagged.

defrost 9 hours ago

Interesting in the sense that similar things happen all the time- stories get posted and either get no traction or else somebody starts a boisterous subthread with flags and downvotes that results in the HN algo downgrading "arguing".

FWiW it's currently #2 on https://hckrnews.com/ .. but that's chronology of submissions with votes, unweighted by comment numbers / arguments.

JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago

“JD Vance has said the US version of TikTok is valued at about $14bn, meaning the fee taken by the government is closer to 70% of the deal.”

gnabgib 10 hours ago

[flagged]

defrost 10 hours ago

I've never met or spoken to Jimmc414 before to the best of my recollection.

Do, please, tell _me_ more more about "that crew" that you've placed me in, in your mind (via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372697 ).

Jimmc414 10 hours ago

I’d also love to hear more about this crew I am apparently being accused of being a part of. I have been posting and commenting independently on this site for years.

gnabgib 10 hours ago

[flagged]

defrost 10 hours ago

I'm almost always awake at 9:00 am in the morning (GMT +8)

> Nothing to do with you

You _explicitly_ linked to a past submission of mine and _explicitly_ referenced that link (and others) as "that crew".

jacquesm 10 hours ago

> Previously (oh you're part of that crew)

You just turned 'net negative'.

Jimmc414 10 hours ago

> oh you're part of that crew

Care to explain what you are referring to?

bigyabai 10 hours ago

These kinds of comments quit being a public service when you violate site guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.