New Delhi, Aug. 26 -- Last week, US President Donald Trump tweeted that his country now "fully owns and controls 10% of Intel", terming its CEO Lip-Bu Tan as "highly respected". The evident irony of Trump hailing Tan, a complete about-turn from his tirade against the man just a fortnight back, and the fury of some commentators who see it as a sign of creeping state capitalism, conceals a more fundamental truth: the US has fallen way behind in leading-edge fabs, a strategic asset in the new world order.

Strip away the spin about "national security" and "strategic importance," and what you see is a more sobering reality: the admission that America's most iconic chipmaker has become too weak to compete on its own, too critical to let die, a...