Life in Chennai has been calm. For breakfast I have rasam. It is a superfood: light, hot, and full of spice. Indian food is the only cuisine where I could be vegetarian. I know Persians who try. I feel sorry for them. No meat, no masala, no spice. There is only so much hummus one can eat.
But calm at the table contrasts with what I read in the news. The Delhi order to remove stray dogs is disturbing. I cannot look at the pictures of the removals.
Across the Trans-Wagah line, another current runs. The Pakistan Cricket Board may change its revenue-sharing with players. A small story, yet it speaks of a larger one: Pakistan may gain small tactical wins by tying its path as the flexible adversary to India. But for the top ten percent of its economy, the block is clear. They cannot flow into India’s success. They remain tied to Western patrons.
Meanwhile, old arguments are stirred again. Audrey Truschke has been active with fresh claims on Aurangzeb. The same week, Kabir wrote that Western philosophy outweighs Dharmic wisdom, and that Greek thought shaped Buddhism (I can’t remember if it was him). I wonder who first wrote this propaganda. It is damaging, and it lingers.
India’s stories stretch from the taste of rasam to the fate of stray dogs, from cricket boards to Aurangzeb’s ghost, from Kabir to the Greeks. Each is part of the same struggle: who owns the narrative of Bharat, and how it is told.
Links:
To the Dutch, a German Shepherd holds more worth: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNYEoQForz2/?igsh=MTVrZW1kZW94NHdieQ==
Serial Killing at a Famous Karnataka Temple: https://youtube.com/shorts/YexL_ASaGqE?si=mQ-Kdj6jSMzNPrAx
Could be Social Media Frenzy: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/dharmasthala-burial-case-political-temperature-soars-as-no-major-recovery-after-digging-17-spots/article69937387.ece
Not one Football: https://youtube.com/shorts/DR8SFCTCaoQ?si=tut2ymQB3EcDHTY6
Rasam with what? rice? bit heavy for breakfast. idli+sambar should be OK.
I just have it on its own
In Muslim eating houses in the South they give it with the meal to be drunk after the meal, Supposed to help digestion
In the South Sinhala areas it is called Thambung Hodda (Hooda =Sothi in Tamil). It is given when you are ill or recovering from illness.
To clarify: I didn’t say that Western philosophy outweighs “Dharmic wisdom”. My comment wasn’t about “Dharmic” anything. I said that South Asia hasn’t produced a Freud or a Marx, a Michel Foucault or an Edward Said. This is not an opinion but an objective fact. Foucault is the most cited scholar in the humanities.
This comment was in the context of Indosauraus claiming India’s philosophy is the “greatest in the world”. That’s a subjective judgement and a sweeping generalization. Plenty of people like me will point out that South Asia has not produced a Locke, a Hume or a Montesquieu.
In non South Asia related news: Trump has sent the National Guard to take over the functions of the DC police. He has threatened to do the same to other Democrat controlled cities (It will be bit harder than in the case of DC since DC is not a state). This feels personal to me since I grew up in the DC area.
There’s a long way to go but I think the first step towards the ‘narrative’ is being able to see ourselves with our own eyes. This does mean discarding colonial viewpoints and a lot of western ‘scholarship’ about India. It does not mean discarding history or cherry picking or aggrandizing achievements. Rather teaching ourselves our own history and learning in our own words, many Indian concepts have no equivalent western thoughts.
This isn’t particularly unique to India, Japan for instance has many cultural words which translate very badly into English and have to be experienced to be understood. Japan however, to a large part gets to write its own history and teach it in it’s schools.
India is slowly decolonizing, it is only now that it has stopped being dictated to (despite recent attempts) and is not beholden for aid.
The culture war is going to be hard, the conflation of religion and identity, of science and modernity with the western world, human aspirations, immigration.
Still, the yuga is turning and the sun is shining. Vivekananda called Kerala a caste mad basket case not more than 150 years ago. I wish he were alive today to see his country rise (and our remembrance of his part in it).
+1
“Trump Attacking D.C. Is Not a Distraction”
https://wkamaubell.substack.com/p/trump-attacking-dc-is-not-just-a
Yes Trump has ambitions – he wants Barron to be President.
He does have 5 children so each one can do a term than swap it up.
I’ve started adding links to the open thread that are interesting
Is that wise? The Dharmastala case is a social media driven/amplified shitshow.
Adding it here and adding to the frenzy is not responsible behaviour.
Sometimes social media outrage can drive justice, in other cases it just fuels conspiracy.
There are a lot of bad actors. You will certainly drive up engagement, but only amongst people who enjoy muckraking.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/dharmasthala-burial-case-political-temperature-soars-as-no-major-recovery-after-digging-17-spots/article69937387.ece
I added your link for balance and context. Since, thankfully, we are sub-viral we have more latitude in what we can post and discuss.
But you are right that should we grow to some level of vitality so does the responsibility ..
The Delhi order to remove stray dogs is disturbing. I cannot look at the pictures of the removals.
I wish this is done in SL too, probably in a more humane ways. Growing up (late 60’s and 70’s) there were dog catchers who went around lassoing and dogs and putting them in carts. No clue how they were euthanized (gas ?)
Wildlife has become a huge problem in the Dry Zone (2/3rds of SL). Also the area where the most agriculture is done. We lose 40% of agri produce to Wildlife.
Elephants rampage through rice fields, break coconut trees (I had about 400 coconut trees all destroyed by elephants. Could have had a monthly income of about USD 1,500). I have given up on agri, too much stress.
Now the Macaques have started invading houses, specially the kitchens.. Some even know how to open refrigerators.
The basic issue is that
a) Over population of wild life and no predators.
b) Wildlife have realized better nutritious food in human habitat, more than in the national parks or jungles
So now farmers have decided to take matter into their own hands. 400 elephants have been killed. Monkeys are beiing poisoned.
Arjuna Jinadasa owns a plot of land full of coconut trees in Kurunegala, in northwestern Sri Lanka, where he enjoys a good produce of about 3,000 coconuts a month. With Sri Lanka’s traditional cuisine heavily reliant on coconut milk, it’s a crop with high demand. Jinadasa has made healthy profits from his plantation until recently — when daily aerial attacks by monkeys started to impact the harvest.
“These monkeys destroy at least 200 young coconuts daily, and now my monthly yield is reduced to about 250 coconuts,” says Jinadasa. The farmer tried many non-lethal methods to keep the raiding monkeys away, but the success was short-lived, as the primates got used to them.
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/as-crop-raiding-animals-reach-an-all-time-high-food-crisis-hit-sri-lanka-looks-for-solutions/
Who were the original predators in SL.
Maybe worth reintroducing apex predators?
Furthermore that’s why I don’t understand why regulated hunting isn’t encouraged more..
Furthermore that’s why I don’t understand why regulated hunting isn’t encouraged more
Unlikely because of Buddhist sensitivity.
Maybe worth reintroducing apex predators?
Our apex predator is the Leopard and the biggest according to some claims
400+ in the nearby National park. Up from less than 100 at end of war in 2009.
One reason monkeys dont stay in the park, easy prey.
In past Elephants were the bulldozers and also exported. The last Elephant Kraal to capture Elephants was in 1950.
“Aurangzeb was viewed positively in his own era: Historian, Audrey Truschke|Scroll Adda”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qe5LgXf5ZE
“Hitler drew adoring crowds.”
What happens when an American or British university sets up a ‘South Asia’ department to cater to a large number of wealthy, English speaking, foreign education demanding, privileged aspiring humanities majors?
Now you have a well funded branch which churns out year after year of liberal minded students, some determined to make their mark on the world.
They in turn churn out books and articles and go back and teach (rare) in their home countries and push the same viewpoints they learned at school. It becomes a positive feedback loop. The more you rehabilitate the atrocities of Islam, the greater accolades from your peers as one striving for human betterment and religious harmony.
Apologies for the self referential link, but I quickly covered the liberal-islamic compact in this post.
https://www.brownpundits.com/2025/06/28/how-did-we-end-up-here/
Why is it that none of the books written about history by Hindutva authors are from people with no formal education in history? (They will then be derided as such, as not being historians for lack of a degree in the field).
So every once in a while a Wendy and an Audrey will come up with an abomination for the liberal/humanities educated Indians and Pakistanis to crow over the derision of Hindu society.
I will say it again, we have produced the greatest philosophy and morality Humankind has known. Our thinkers shunned all material possessions and contemplated their existence, not just the Buddha, but a whole multitude of scholars, begging and wandering amongst society, across borders, after receiving education at the largest universities of the world. No other society has this, just think how much can be achieved when your life is dedicated to this goal, with this background, with this exposure, no ulterior incentives of family or prestige. A hundreds of thousands of Diogenes (I should say Upagupta, but we aren’t there yet).
The disrespect for Western scholarship is ridiculous. You are nothing compared to Professor Truscke or Professor Doniger. None of us are.
India or Pakistan haven’t produced a single Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge or Yale. So this “We have the great philosophy” thing is Indian nationalist nonsense.
Are you a PhD historian? If not, you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
Her larger point is that Hindu nationalist views on the Mughals are largely based on British colonial views (that denigrated the Mughals for their own reasons). Hindu nationalist views on the Mughals are not at all historically correct.
Professor Truschke noted in the interview that she is afraid to go to India because she receives so many death threats from Hindu nationalists.
you have a very specific slant and agenda to peddle, and every single time it gets challenged by anyone, you turn nasty and resort to personal insults. “debate the point, not the man” is utterly lost on you. You are a Kalank to your so-called humanities education that you like to tout so much. And you lack civility.
The joke here is that when it comes to vilifying the Mughals the British are at fault but when it comes to Independence the Pakistanis got it from the crushing Hindu oppression.
I was referring to the general feeling in Pakistan. I never said it was strictly historically accurate.
You lack civility as well. Don’t condescend to me.
If you’re not a Phd historian you are no one to challenge Professor Truschke. A rando on the internet living in New Jersey compared to a credentialed Sanskritist. That’s a laugh.
My academic credentials are visible for the world to see. Yours don’t seem to have been put on the record anywhere.
Kabir, you get that this Audrey woman is on record calling Sri Ram a misogynist pig and then citing the threats she got in her book and in interviews.
Do you really want to defend this? Would you do the same if she said something similar about your prophet?
She is a PhD historian. She is free to say whatever she wants as long as she cites her sources.
As far as I’m concerned “The Ramayana” is fiction. I don’t take it seriously one way or another. Even in the story, the guy’s wife is accused to being unfaithful and has to ask her mother the earth to swallow her up. Not exactly a model husband.
And I don’t care what she says about Islam. She deserves the utmost respect as a Phd Historian.
What you need for more Hindutvadis to get PhDs in History. Unfortunately, they don’t tend to be smart enough to make it through.
Hahaha, just as I thought. It is my enduring pleasure to keep exposing your hypocrisy. I can’t take all the credit though, you never fail to disappoint!
It doesn’t really bother me if folks refer to Ramayan as fiction, but just pointing out that if anyone said something anywhere close to this about Kabir’s chosen skygod, he’d be throwing his toys out of the pram. Again.
Look there is no documentary proof that anything like “The Ramayana” happened. That’s why it’s not History by any stretch of the imagination. There is documentary proof that Jesus of Nazarath existed (but not that he was the son of God). There is documentary proof that Muhammad exist (but not that he was the Prophet of God).
See the difference?
You people believe in flying monkeys. I mean grow up seriously.
Audrey Truschke is a provocateur; Aurangzeb is not a hill to die on
I’m going to defend PhD historians over non academics who think they know better.
The defense of some ‘rando over the internet’ isn’t going to change anything for Truschke, or her trashke (sic) work. But feel free to continue demonstrating your buddhi and bias.
So you think she should be getting death threats from Hindu nats?
What is wrong with you people?
🙂 Back to Straw men I see. It is the end of summer.
Audrey seems to have been counting on those threats to get her book sold. Of course they shouldn’t have been made, it was an incredibly foolish thing to do.
I’m trying my best to stay within my self-defined norms of politeness when I interact with him. It is a challenge I will admit!
True. i can not agree with you more. But this site is basically for the people who are non-academics and can criticize PhD Historians. Here these non-academics write a lot and get enormous support from its mostly similar minded people. it is an echo-chamber for such people..
🙂 That is pretty much my point about PhD Historians. Academic institutions have turned into echo chambers, and worse, echo chambers far removed from source. History is full of opposing view points, yet subcontinental history lacks the thrust and parry of true academic debate and has just turned into a political feedback mechanism.
I don’t get the whole defence of this Audrey person, just because she has a Phd? She makes a bogus slanderous claim, the newspaper checks her source. The source vehemently denies ever using that interpretation and is quite appalled at being cited so.
She then uses the outrage to sell her book.
Okay , i get it. complaint is against the Audrey . May i ask if i may. what about mainstream academic departments of History in the world, where research and scholarly activities are done. what are their views. I think i would trust the mainstream academic departments. As a nonacademic person i think, we should follow a standard most commonly used and respected book in that field.
Why? If you decide scholarship and knowledge can only come through accreditation that’s just giving in to gatekeeping and opening the door to dogma. Judge a work by it’s merit, not the authors caste or background. Accreditation has it’s uses, I would be more willing to listen to a person with a degree, but that doesn’t give a free pass or deny refutation when they have it wrong. Bad behaviour, ulterior motives, conflicts of interest, blatant hypocrisy they all deserve to be called out.
Which reminds me.
R.M: you can’t keep engaging and then berate Kabir for doing so with a declaration that you won’t either. Follow your own logic and be done with us or accept your own hypocrisy.
I voided this as it was Hinduphobic
But they can call me an “Islamist”? That’s so nice to know. Not on.
“Hinduphobia” does not exist. Islamophobia is a real thing. The two are not the same.
I didn’t read all the comments btw just this one. I’ve voided the bit about you.
Strange. I don’t remember saying anything very objectionable.
Calling IT people sad, right wing people dumb, humanities (and himself) smart. There are all very much signs of insecurity, people secure in their intelligence do not feel the need to denigrate others so.
Maybe it’s the Islamist tag. This is a bit of a language issue, it is the best word I know to describe the mindset of someone who regards Islam to be the ‘true’ religion and is happy to denigrate (repeatedly) other religions. refer to –> https://www.brownpundits.com/2025/08/16/open-thread-rasam-stray-dogs-and-the-battle-over-indias-story/#comment-116448
The whole documentary evidence as proof of the validity of a religion is inane, Joseph Smith had his photo taken and L.Ron Hubbard has actual documentaries.
I looked into it a little, this bit about Islamists being people who insist on Sharia law is something standardized by AP in order to have consistency across their reporting. It need not preclude all other uses (I’m quite happy to accept alternative suggestions).
As a general rule, feel free to critisize your own religion as much as you like, not someone else’s.
Freedom of speech means one can criticize all religions. You are not the boss of the internet.
Simply referring to your myths as fiction sets you off. Pot calling the kettle black?
I will never tolerate “Islamist”. That’s an absolute red line.
But you don’t criticize all religions do you. You are a very select offender.
The enduring joke on this blog is your insistence of free speech for yourself and the drawing of red lines for everyone else.
The “enduring joke” on this blog is your self-appointed role as the one who points out my hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, you are clearly not a published humanities scholar. I am. You can look me up. Even ChatGPT will tell you all about me.
Indosaurus has admin privileges btw
Sure.
Still not a published humanities scholar.
His role as self-appointed identifier of hypocrisy is annoying as hell.
The list of things I am not is long and inexhaustive. Congratulations on your recognition on chatgpt, funnily enough it recognises Indosaurus too.
I think every human points out hypocrisy quite regularly, it’s a cornerstone of civilized democratic society.
I agree it is annoying and shameful to have it pointed out, more so repeatedly.
Anyway as a regular reader in this blog I’m sure you’ve noticed I disagree with x.t.m quite often, and point it out too, he calls me out in turn.
Dissent is a healthy part of debate, feel free to disagree.
Dissent is one thing. Making it your mission in life to call out one person’s “hypocrisy” is a whole another thing.
Get off my back. Not only ChatGPT recognizes me. I have actually published books in the real world.
You have a strange animus against people with proper Western humanities education. Anyway, a quick Google will reveal tons of research that properly educated people tend to be left-wing. So sad for right-wing types.
No one is on your back or singling you out unfairly. I’ve suggested this before, that as a person of origin from the Indian Subcontinent you are welcome to accept the Ramayan as your cultural history (and if you do so you are more than welcome to criticise it as you see fit).
A true liberal would recognise that it is insensitive to criticise beliefs of a culture you do not belong to (or in your case rejected).
Happily this ties into my scorn of western ‘liberal’ scholarship. They aren’t part of the culture they are commenting on, their own heritage is colonial (and in the case of Americans, genocidal, racist and slave owning). I don’t feel we have been well served by it.
People who live in India, who make India their life’s work, who have true love for the country and the people, their viewpoints and criticism is very welcome.
As always your qualifications count for nothing if your behaviour lacks decency (tooting your own horn, denigrating others, mocking beliefs).
I thought you were a “free speech absolutist”? What happened to that? In that case, anyone anywhere has a right to criticize anything they damn well want. You of course have a right to reject criticisms.
One doesn’t become a PhD Sankritist without “making India their life’s work”. So in that case, you should have no issues with Professors Truschke and Doniger.
Anyway, you do you. Since you are not a Humanities scholar with a Phd, I refuse to take you seriously.
Still am, what about it? Look up the meaning, you can cry a river when I actually censor somebody. Anyway enough with this, going to turn my attention elsewhere.
Sorry, you’re not being intellectually consistent. Since you like calling out hypocrisy so much, here’s some for you: If you are a free speech absolutist I can damn well criticize the Ramayana as much as I please. Since it upsets you so much, you’re clearly not a free speech absolutist.
Clearly, lack of Humanities education has deeply affected your argumentation skills.
Saying that only the viewpoints of those who “live in India” and “love India” are welcome is ridiculous. In that case, you are not allowed to say a single word about Pakistan. Are you cool with that?
Look up the meaning.
The point remains that I have the right to criticize “The Ramayana”. Personally, any book that has flying monkeys in it doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. It’s like elevating “The Wizard of OZ” to the level of scripture. You do you. But rational human beings will laugh.
Nice try, notice how your violation of decency doesn’t prompt any such behaviour in me.
What you are engaging in is cultural insensitivity, thereby proving to yourself that you are not a liberal. Your own red lines form the Islamist box we see you in.
In the same vein you should stick to writing about Pakistani Hijras and leave the Indians out of it.
Enjoy getting chatgpt and grok to agree with your views, they are AI’s designed for that purpose, they can give you all the love and acclamation you seek, (you would understand how meaningless their responses are if you had a STEM background).
Anyway, it turns out I am guilty of some mild hypocrisy in paying you some token attention I said I wouldn’t. It’s an easy fix.
Once again, I am an academic. I can write about whatever I damn well please.
The fact that you have such a strong reaction to a fairly benign article about hijras in India (it was called that because that was what the research focused on) only reveals your own transphobia.
I don’t take orders from randoms on the internet.
“Hinduphobia” doesn’t exist? An entire country was carved out due to self-professed hinduphobia for crying out loud.
The bias and hypocrisy is…..quite something.
And the “war on terror” was on Hindus? Really you people are delusional.
Summer straw men. Haymaking all day.
Pakistan wasn’t carved out of Hinduphobia?
We’ve been over this many times. The historical consensus is that Pakistan was formed because the Muslim minority was terrified of what the Hindu majority would do to them.
Indian nationalists want to spin it as “evil Jinnah”. But even the BJP’s own Jaswant Singh acknowledged that that is a foolish and simplistic narrative.
>>>because the Muslim minority was terrified of what the Hindu majority would do to them.
“terrified”. fear. phobia. Post-1947 history is unambiguously clear, as India’s secular democratic consistency has demonstrated, the phobia was without cause.
Although Pakistan’s creation wasn’t really about Hinduphobia at all, it was artificially hyped up Hinduphobia, and more about duping the Indian muslims about an Islamic ‘promised land’, so that the muslim elites could carve out an uncontested space to perpetuate their privileges.
LOL. Jaswant Singh knows more than you. But sure, go ahead and reveal your absolute and utter lack of intellectual depth.
India is secular on paper. In reality, it has always been a Hindu state. And you all lynch Muslims daily. Then there were the Gujarat pogroms of 2002 and the Delhi pogroms of 2020. Not to mention what you all do to Kashmiri Muslims.
No truly secular state would have a man like Hindu Hriday Samrat in charge for over a decade.
Who do you think you’re kidding? Unfortunately, much of the world is far too intelligent to drink the Indian nationalist koolaid.
Absolutely. They need to understand that they are nothing compared to people who’ve actually bothered to do Humanities research.
Sad Indian origin IT workers.
This … reeks of insecurity and sad bigotry. I feel sorry for you.
you have indeed good academic credentials. Pity is that these learned people here have not put any credentials. Very strange people here. why do you waste your time with these people. i think i am done with these people.
I actually don’t mind people not having academic credentials. Most people in this world don’t have Masters and Phds. That’s perfectly fine.
What I don’t like is the disrespect for Western academics who specialize in South Asia. Only because these Western academics don’t support Hindutva. Frankly, Hindutva is a movement of the ignorant. This is not unique to India. Right wing nationalists anywhere tend to not be very smart. There is a clear link between academic qualifications (at least in the humanities) and left-wing views. That’s just the way it is.
South Asians in general don’t acquire higher education in Humanities. This is because the jobs are in STEM. I worked at a university in Karachi last year which claimed to be a “liberal arts” university. Fully one third of the entering class was doing Computer Science. That’s where the jobs are so that’s what their parents want them to do. But then don’t complain when people like William Dalrymple, Sam Dalrymple, and Audrey Truscke are the interpreters of South Asia’s history.
That absurd that Hindutva is the moment of the ignorant. It is about reclamation ..
Well. Right-wing nationalism everywhere is a movement of the ignorant “Make America Great Again”. “Reclaim” India.
Smart people are left-wing. That’s just reality.
ChatGPT says “Hindutva is indeed a right-wing movement, but it is less about free markets and more about cultural-religious nationalism. Compared globally, it resembles identity-driven populist right-wing movements (Trumpism, European far-right, Erdogan’s Turkey) more than purely economic conservatism (Reagan/Thatcher style).
When you ask Grok if BP is a “soft Hindutva” site, this is what it says (now surely Grok cannot be accused of Pakistani or Muslim bias):
And if you ask Grok specifically “Is ‘Kabir’ from “BP” an “Islamist”, it replies:
Now it’s not like I’m powerful enough to tell Elon Musk what to make Grok say, LOL. So this should settle that ridiculous debate for once and for all.
There have been updates on the Dharmastala case.
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/dharmasthala-secret-burials-case-false-information-complainant-whistleblower-sit-10206444/?ref=hometop_hp
IE is being a bit muted about it, but it turns out that the remains the worker came up with (a skull) were dug up from a cemetary.
Oh very glad to hear that – I am of course sorry about the disappearances and hope they are resolved.
a russian jew will be u s ambassador to india. looks interesting. he is a bit young for india’s politicos, where a 56 year old is still a youth icon!!
For those who want an overview of current state of the computer chip industry
Even the excerpt is long, for a long article where every paragraph is a deep insight.
Intel’s problems are operational, not financial, and can’t be solved by money, any more than throwing more funds at Project Ukraine can magic new weapons into existence
So the government got no more influence over Intel than it already possessed due to Trump’s very active use of bullying and name calling. Keep in mind that those alone are the reason Nvidia and AMD capituled to the demand that they agree to pay a probably unconstitutional 15% “export tax” on sales to China
It’s not a secret that Intel’s woes are deep seated. Like Boeing, its decline is the result of Intel’s once great engineering being subordinated to rule by MBA
Meanwhile, from the early 1980s, “fabless” semiconductor companies – firms that designed, but did not fabricate chips themselves – proliferated, creating products for varied segments of the memory and logic markets
Meanwhile, from the early 1980s, “fabless” semiconductor companies – firms that designed, but did not fabricate chips themselves – proliferated, creating products for varied segments of the memory and logic markets
The most advanced chips are produced for smartphones as “system-on-a-chip” (SOC). The leading designers of SOCs are Apple (USA), Qualcomm (USA), SEC (South Korea), and MediaTek (Taiwan). HiSilicon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huawei Technologies (China), was also a SOC leader until U.S. trade sanctions, implemented from August 2020, terminated its access to TSMC’s fab output
According to TSMC, compared with 7nm, 5nm offers 15% faster speed, 30% less power consumption, and 1.8 times the logic density
But, as an IDM, Intel manufactures almost all its CPUs at 14nm, and its 10nm capacity has been stuck, with limited output, since 2018.
Apple soon decided that the iPhone required a new kind of logic chip, one that could balance performance with the efficiency needed for a small battery-run device. To make acquire such a chip, Apple bet on restructuring the entire chip industry, designing chips in-house but having them produced by a partner whose sole focus was running foundries, Taiwan Semiconductor. So-called fabless chipmaking at scale wasn’t industry standard; one expression among chipmakers had been ‘real men have fabs.’ Also, nothing on the scale of the iPhone had ever existed.
The authors documented the extent of Intel’s payouts, both via dividends and buybacks, but pointed out that is it not money per se but financialization that was driving Intel’s decline:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/08/trumps-intel-deal-the-price-of-everything-the-value-of-nothing.html
Also the world is a lot more competitive now; this is not a hegemonic world per se