San Francisco: US President Donald Trump wants the US government to own a piece of Intel, less than two weeks after demanding the Silicon Valley pioneer dump the CEO that was hired to turn around the slumping chipmaker.
If the goal is realised, the investment would deepen the Trump administration’s involvement in the computer industry as the president ramps up the pressure for more US companies to manufacture products domestically instead of relying on overseas suppliers.
What’s happening?
The Trump administration is in talks to secure a 10 per cent stake in Intel in exchange for converting government grants that were pledged to Intel under President Joe Biden. If the deal is completed, the US government would become one of Intel’s largest shareholders and blur the traditional lines separating the public sector and private sector in a country that remains the world’s largest economy.
Why would Trump do this?
In his second term, Trump has been leveraging his power to reprogramme the operations of major computer chip companies. The administration is requiring Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, two companies whose chips are helping to power the craze around artificial intelligence, to pay a 15 per cent commission on their sales of chips in China in exchange for export licenses. Trump’s interest in Intel is also being driven by his desire to boost chip production in the US, which has been a focal point of the trade war that he has been waging throughout the world.
Didn’t Trump want Intel’s CEO to quit?
That’s what the president said August 7 in an unequivocal post calling for Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign less than five months after the Santa Clara, California, company hired him.
The demand was triggered by reports raising national security concerns about Tan’s past investments in Chinese tech companies while he was a venture capitalist. But Trump backed off after Tan professed his allegiance to the US in a public letter to Intel employees and went to the White House to meet with the president, who applauded the Intel CEO for having an “amazing story.”