Trump Reveals Intel 10% Stake Negotiation, Says "Should Have Asked for More"
In a recent interview, former U.S. President Trump disclosed that during negotiations with Intel's CEO, he proposed the U.S. government should receive a 10% stake in the company "for free." He lamented that he should have demanded a higher price, stating that if he were president, he would have used tariffs to protect the domestic chip industry, allowing Intel to surpass TSMC.
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- 📰 Published: May 19, 2026 at 12:15
- 🔍 Collected: May 19, 2026 at 12:31 (16 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 19, 2026 at 12:41 (9 min after Collected)
(CNA, Washington, May 18, Comprehensive Foreign Report) In a recent interview, U.S. President Trump said that during negotiations last year with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan regarding a government stake, he proposed to Tan that the U.S. government should "get a 10% stake for free." Looking back, he felt he should have set higher terms, exclaiming, "I should have asked for more." According to CNBC, Trump told Fortune magazine that if he had been president at the time, he would have protected the domestic chip industry through tariff measures, and "Intel would now be the largest company in the world." Speaking about the global chip foundry leader TSMC, Trump said, "Intel could have taken all the chip business, and there would be no room for Taiwan." TSMC's current market capitalization is about $1.84 trillion, far exceeding Intel's $547 billion. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick previously stated that the U.S. acquired a stake in Intel through subsidies and conversion mechanisms related to the CHIPS Act. This included converting an approved but not yet disbursed $5.7 billion subsidy into equity, plus an additional $3.2 billion in government subsidy funds. Since then, Intel's stock price has surged by over 300%. Earlier this month, it was also reported that Apple had reached a preliminary agreement with Intel for Intel to manufacture chips for some of its future devices. Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated in April this year that he plans to use Intel's future chips in his $119 billion Terafab project. Trump told Fortune that the U.S. is "far ahead" of China in artificial intelligence (AI) and emphasized that "our victory is crucial." In April, Intel recorded its best single-month performance in its 55 years on the Nasdaq, with its stock price doubling in a month, mainly benefiting from a rebound in CPU demand. Bank of America predicts that by 2030, the CPU market size could more than double from its current level. Lip-Bu Tan pointed out in an April earnings call that "the CPU is re-emerging as an indispensable core foundation in the AI era," and stated that demand for Intel's data center CPUs has exceeded supply. (Compiler: Liu Wen-yu) 1150519