“They’ve agreed to do it, and I think it’s a great deal for them,” Trump told reporters.
The administration has been weighing taking a stake in the struggling American chipmaker, pulling from previously allocated funding, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed earlier this week.
Trump offered some details Friday on how the agreement came about after he initially called on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign earlier this month.
He pointed to concerns raised by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) about Tan’s investments in Chinese companies and his previous role as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which recently pleaded guilty to violating export controls by selling chip design technology to a Chinese military university.
“I said, ‘Well that’s right he should resign,’” Trump said. “And he came in, he saw me, we talked for a while. I liked him a lot. I thought he was very good. I thought he was somewhat a victim, but, you know, nobody’s a total victim, I guess.”
“And I said, ‘You know what? I think the United States should be given 10 percent of Intel.’ And he said, ‘I would consider that,’” the president continued. “Intel has been left behind, as you know, compared to [Nvidia CEO] Jensen [Huang] and some of our friends.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
