The Subsidy Reflex in the Age of AI

A subsidy becomes policy the moment no one remembers what it was meant to correct.

Governments tend to treat new technologies the way tired parents treat precocious children. They reward enthusiasm first and ask about consequences later.

Tax credits become the bonding mechanism. The problem is not malice. It is drift. Once incentives are set, the system follows them with surprising obedience.

The AI buildout is arriving at the moment when public budgets are already strained. It appears that private ambition has learned how to lean on public capacity long before it learns how to pay for it.

OpenAI recently asked the federal government to expand the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit under the CHIPS Act to cover a broad AI infrastructure stack.

The AMIC was designed to support domestic semiconductor manufacturing by offering up to a 35% credit for qualified investments. OpenAI’s request would extend that treatment to data centers, steel grid components, and other inputs needed for large-scale AI operations.

The company framed its position as an effort to preserve US…