Intel a symbol of big tech's with missed opportunities, failures

Government backing for smaller rivals is smarter than wasteful handouts to a company that has lost its way

As if to symbolise the US de­cline, a giant of American in­dustry is being overtaken by foreign rivals. Intel Corp., the company that once marked the US dominance of the semiconductor industry, has announced that the introduction of its new flagship series of computer chi­ps, 7nm CPUs, will be a year behind schedule. This is after its previous generation of chips, 10nm CPUs, took much longer than expected.

Intel, unlike many semiconductor companies, designs and fabricates its own chips. On the design front, it’s being overtaken by domestic rivals and the UK-based ARM Ltd, which recently sna­tched Apple Inc.’s business away