Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration commented that the stocks did not run the company.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said the US government wanted Intel’s equity interests in exchange for cash grants approved during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said on Tuesday that US investment in Intel was aimed at helping troubled chipmakers stabilize.
Regarding reports that the US is considering acquiring a 10% stake in Intel, Bessent told CNBC’s Squawk Box program:
Bessent did not provide details on the size or timing of Intel’s US stocks, but said the investment was not intended to force US companies to buy chips from Intel.
Bessent’s comments were the first official response from the Trump administration after Bloomberg News reported on Monday that the US government was in talks to take 10% Intel stake in exchange for grants approved by US chip companies during the Biden administration.
“It’s not governance.”
“We need to get equity stakes for the money,” Rutnick told CNBC. “We get fairness in return… not just granting grants.”
Lutnick said the US does not want to manage the company.
“It’s not governance. We’re just converting grants under Biden into Trump administration equity for Americans,” he suggested that every stock is “non-voting.” This means that the US government cannot tell the company how it operates its business.
He commented a day after SoftBank Group agreed to invest $2 billion in chip makers.
“The Biden administration literally offered Intel money for free and TSMC money for free. All these companies are just giving money for free. Donald Trump said, “Hey, we want to give you money. If we’re trying to give you money, we want action for the American taxpayers,” Lutnick said.
Taiwan-based chip makers Intel and TSMC did not immediately comment.
Intel has helped launch Silicon Valley, but has lagged behind rivals such as Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, cutting thousands of workers and cutting costs under new CEO Lip-Bu Tan. In 2024, it recorded an annual loss of $18.8 billion. This is the first loss since 1986.
Intel is expected to end the year with 75,000 “core” workers excluding subsidiaries through layoffs and attrition from 99,500 core employees at the end of 2024. The company previously announced a 15% reduction in workforce.
Trump recently said Tan, who became CEO in March, should resign. However, after meeting him last week, Trump relented, saying Tan has a “surprising story.”
