>No way the powers that be would let Intel's manufacturing plants go under.

Perhaps that's part of the calculus too; if they know that Uncle Sam will backstop any failures, are they not also making the same play as their competitors were in the 80s?

    The problem is that by the mid-1980s Japanese competitors were producing 
    more reliable memory at lower costs (allegedly) backed by unlimited funding 
    from the Japanese government, and Intel was struggling to compete…