Senator Cornyn Weighs In on Nvidia-Intel, Possible Gov't Shutdown

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00:00It's a pleasure to have the senior senator from Texas with us. Senator John Cornyn

00:04is joining us now live from Capitol Hill. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. I'd like

00:09to start with the economy and the news on the semiconductor space that is getting a lot of talk

00:14and moving markets around here before we get to some of the other issues that we'd love to ask

00:17you about. NVIDIA investing five billion dollars in Intel following the president's announcement of

00:23a federal stake in the chipmaker, as well the deals the president announced 15 percent of

00:29China sales from NVIDIA and AMD to go to the U.S. government. I'm wondering your thoughts on

00:34this. Is this the best move to shore up domestic semiconductor manufacturing or does the conservative

00:40Republican you feel like this is state run capitalism? Well, as you know, we made a major

00:48investment in bringing back to our shores American advanced semiconductor manufacturing since we only

00:55were doing a roughly 12 percent of it. And I think many people, including me, recognize this is a

01:01national security risk when so much of it was housed in South Korea and Taiwan. And so having Intel

01:11manufacturing advanced semiconductors in the United States is a positive thing. But of course, we've all

01:19watched all the problems that they've had with their now with a new CEO and they are struggling, it

01:26appears. But if you read the history of semiconductors, this is nothing new. It's a very tough competitive

01:35field. But I have no objection. In fact, I'm glad to see NVIDIA see see that as a as an investment,

01:42a good business investment. Senator Cornyn, the 10 percent stake, however,

01:47the U.S. government now has in Intel, as you mentioned, has been touted as a measure of national security.

01:52There's other areas that are touted as measures of national security, including energy independence,

01:57something driven by your state and others in the South. Does the government need to be taking stakes in things

02:03like energy companies and specifically oil companies? No, I don't think so. You know, unfortunately,

02:11we do find ourselves vulnerable to the supply chains on things like critical minerals and rare earth

02:17elements since China processes 90 percent of those and uses that as leverage against us. And of course,

02:26these rare earth elements in particular are essential to make the magnets to go in virtually

02:31every electric motor that runs. And they really have us at a tremendous disadvantage. And we just,

02:38I think, have not anticipated this in among other things. But it's emblematic of the strategy,

02:47long term strategy China has had to make the United States dependent on on them for exports and the

02:56and demonstrates that they have a full cross the board strategy to try to undermine American investment

03:04and to maintain that monopoly, virtual monopoly. So this is a this is a pretty worrisome situation.

03:12But I would say in the energy sector, we are doing very well. We just need the reg some of the

03:19regulators to take their boot off the neck of some of the businesses here in this country and they will they will

03:26flourish. Senator Cornyn, I'd love to ask you what's happening in terms of government funding. We're,

03:31of course, staring down a September 30th deadline. Can you confirm that the Senate is leaving today?

03:37That's what we're hearing at Bloomberg as opposed to staying around town for the weekend to maybe

03:42hammer out a deal or get a vote on a CR. What's the latest on this?

03:47Well, of course, the deadline isn't until the end of the month. So we still have we still have a little

03:52more than a week. But the fact of the matter is right now, Democrats are making a demand which is

03:59completely unreasonable. They want us to deal with something more than keeping the lights on,

04:04keeping the government open, which is what a continuing resolution is, as you know, until

04:09November the 20th. And they want to use this as leverage, a potential government shutdown, as leverage

04:15to extract trillions of dollars of additional spending in terms of health care subsidies.

04:20We're happy to have that conversation, but not right now.

04:24Understood. Are you heading home tonight then? Will you come back next week? Has Senator Thune given

04:31you directions on that front? I think that's still up in the air. First thing we need to do this

04:37afternoon is confirm about 45 nominees to cabinet, sub-cabinet positions that the Democrats have been

04:45holding hostage. But I know those discussions continue, but no resolution yet.

04:50I know you need to run, Senator, but you've seen this movie a couple of times. What's your gut tell

04:55you? Are we going to shut down at the end of the month? You know, it's a lot of unnecessary drama.

05:01And yes, I have seen this movie before. And it's embarrassing, frankly, because the government

05:08and the Congress ought to be able to figure out how to keep the lights on, how to keep government funded.

05:13But unfortunately, things have become so polarized and so partisan that it's hard to get some consensus

05:19on something as simple as that. You don't sound that confident.

05:24Well, I don't expect to shut down. But right now, the demands that are being made, I think,

05:30are unrealistic. And we're simply not going to go there. Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas.

05:37We thank you for being with us. Come see us when we have more time on Bloomberg TV and radio.

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