TMTPOST -- Intel Corporation shares rallied around 7% on Tuesday after the Trump administration confirmed recent reports about possible government stake in, and signaled more deals similar to that with Intel could be followed.
Credit：Intel
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said Intel must give the U.S. government an equity stake in the company in return for the funds it was granted under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (CHIPS Act). He assailed the act signed by former President Joe Biden for giving semiconductor manufacturers subsidies without any return for U.S. taxpayers.
“Why are we giving a company worth $100 billion this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money,” Lutnick said in a CNBC interview. “So we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration, we’ll get equity in return for it.”
Lutnick said the plan to get a stake would not give the U.S. governance or voting rights in the company, even though it could make the federal government Intel’s largest shareholder.He also signaled President Donald Trump could seek clinching similar deals with other recipients of CHIPS funds.
“The Biden administration literally was giving Intel for free, and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving them money for free,” Lutnick said. “Donald Trump turns that into saying, ‘Hey, we want equity for the money. If we’re going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action.’”
Lutnick also said Washington wants to reshore some chipmaking for national security purposes. “We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan,” he said.
Later Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed the Trump administration is working on a deal that could allow the government to take a stake in Intel. "The president wants to put America"s needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective," said Leavitt.
The Trump administration last Thursday was reported to be in talks with Intel to have the U.S. government take a stake in the company, and the deal, if reached, would help re-boost Intel’s long-delayed factory hub in Ohio.The government is considering using at least part of funds from the CHIPS Act for Intel in exchange for a stake in the company, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
The report indicated possible options include converting some or all of Intel’s existing CHIPS Act grants into equity, allocating new funding from a broader pool, and combining Chips Act money with other financing streams. It noted that the source of funding remains in discussion, hinting the administration may eventually decide to take advantage of other sources.
Bloomberg cited sources on Monday that the Trump administration is in talks to take a roughly 10% stake in Intel in a deal that would make the U.S. the largest shareholder in the chipmaker. The federal government is mulling an investment that would convert some or all of the grants allocated to the company under the CHIPS Act, per the report.
Intel was already deemed as the biggest beneficiary of the federal incentives. The company was awarded $7.9 billion in grants under the CHIPS Act for commercial semiconductor manufacturing and as much as an additional $3 billion for the Pentagon’s Secure Enclave program. The combined $10.9 billion in grants would equate to a little over 10% of Intel’s $103.8 billion market value as of Monday.
