Intel agrees to sell the US a 10% stake, Trump says, hyping “great deal”

Intel has agreed to sell the US a 10 percent stake in the company, Donald Trump announced at a news conference Friday.

The US stake is worth $10 billion, Trump said, confirming that the deal was inked following his talks with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Trump had previously called for Tan to resign, accusing the CEO of having "concerning" ties to the Chinese Communist Party. During their meeting, the president claimed that Tan "walked in wanting to keep his job and he ended up giving us $10 billion for the United States."

"I said, 'I think it would be good having the United States as your partner.' He agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it," Trump said. "And I think it’s a great deal for them."

Sources have suggested that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick pushed the idea of the US buying large stakes in various chipmakers like Intel in exchange for access to CHIPS Act funding that had already been approved. Earlier this week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) got behind the plan, noting that "if microchip companies make a profit from the generous grants they receive from the federal government, the taxpayers of America have a right to a reasonable return on that investment."

However, Trump apparently doesn't plan to seek a stake in every company that the US has awarded CHIPS funding to. Instead, he likely plans to only approach chipmakers that won't commit to increasing their investments in the US. For example, a government official, speaking anonymously, told The Wall Street Journal Friday that "the administration isn’t looking to own equity in companies like TSMC that are increasing their investments" in the US.

This two-pronged plan that may end Trump's bid to kill the CHIPS Act may have come after Trump started expecting some pushback on the Intel deal. It appears that TSMC was not as receptive to the idea of selling the US a stake in its chip business just to keep CHIPS funding, WSJ reported.

"People briefed on TSMC's thinking" told WSJ that "the company has never relied heavily on US financial support," and—likely more concerning for the Trump administration—other sources suggested that TSMC executives have been holding "preliminary discussions about handing back their subsidies if the administration asks to become a stockholder."

Intel apparently had fewer reservations, but so far, the company has not commented on Trump's announcement. The New York Times noted that Intel's board will likely need to approve the deal—the terms of which Trump has yet to disclose. And that approval may not come if Intel's shareholders are worried the deal may be illegal, NYT reported. They may also be concerned that the US's stake could disrupt Intel's or its rivals' businesses. Critics have suggested the plan could possibly hurt the economy or US tech leadership in the long run if the US meddles too much in private tech companies.

An official announcement from the Trump administration discussing the deal, which Reuters reported is expected late Friday, could offer more transparency into what NYT described as one of the "largest government interventions in a US company since the rescue of the auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis."