Brazil liquidates its chip-making company amid a global shortage. Here’s why

Soon after being elected Brazil’s president in late 2018, Jair Bolsonaro boasted that he would privatize 100 of the country’s state-owned companies. While this delighted markets and financial elites, the far-right Bolsonaro government’s privatization agenda has gone next to nowhere in almost three years. And the operations carried out so far either pale in significance or are surrounded by shady interests.

The majority of “privatizations” carried out by the Bolsonaro administration have involved the selling of assets in companies that are already partly privately owned. And only one 100-percent state-owned company is finally reaching the finish line on its journey to no longer be tied to the government — and is slated for liquidation.

The National Advanced Technology Center, or Ceitec, was created in 2008 and is currently under the umbrella of the Science and Technology Ministry. It is the only company in Latin America with the knowledge and infrastructure to manufacture semiconductors and produce silicon chips from scratch.

When talks of liquidating Ceitec first surfaced, employees and experts in the field began questioning the government’s decision. After all, the company was on course to make a profit over the coming years and the timing of its sale could not have been worse, coming amid a global chip shortage.

The government argues that Ceitec has made an overall loss of BRL 160 million (USD 28.6 million) since its foundation in 2008, but optimistic economic projections show that the company is set to arrive in the...