President Donald Trump announced on Aug. 22 that the U.S. government has taken a 10% stake in Intel, the struggling U.S. chipmaker company.
“It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post. “I negotiated this Deal with Lip-Bu Tan, the Highly Respected Chief Executive Officer of the Company.”
At various points during the day, Trump said the U.S. shares would be valued at $10 and $11 billion, without providing details.
“The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars,” he wrote. “This is a great Deal for America and, also, a great Deal for INTEL.”
Earlier, during an Oval Office meeting, he told reporters the value of the shares would be worth $10 billion.
Intel is expected to receive about $10 billion in CHIPS Act grants from the government to help fund the building of chip plants in the U.S., which makes it roughly equivalent to the value of U.S. shares, according to Reuters.
Just two weeks ago, Trump had called for the Intel CEO’s resignation citing alleged connections to China and decribed him as “highly CONFLICTED” in a Truth Social post. But after subsequently meeting with Tan on Aug. 11, Trump said he’d “liked him a lot.”
“I told him, I think the United States should be given 10% of Intel,” said Trump. “I said I think it would be good having the United States as your partner. He agreed.”
The Intel investment would be the latest of several unusual deals with U.S. companies, including agreeing to allow AI chip giant Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving 15% of those sales.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called the deal a “historic agreement.”
“(It) strengthens U.S. leadership in semiconductors, which will both grow our economy and help secure America’s technological edge,” he wrote on X.
The Pentagon is also slated to become the largest shareholder in a small mining company to boost output of rare earth magnets and the U.S. government negotiated for itself a “golden share” with certain veto rights as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy U.S. Steel.
The U.S. government’s broad intervention in corporate matters has worried critics who say Trump’s actions create new categories of corporate risk.
Democratic Sen. Mark warner of Virgina, a co-author of the CHIPS and Science Act, said given the administration’s recent approach to other high-profile technology transactions, Congress “must apply thorough scrutiny for potential conflicts of interest or undue interference in private-sector decisions unrelated to national security,” in a statement.
“Taking an equity stake in Intel may or may not be the right approach, but one thing is clear: allowing cutting-edge chips to flow to China without restraint will erode the value of any investment we make here at home,” he said.
Contributing: Reuters