According to reports, news from the U.S. Government pointed out that the Trump administration is in talks with Intel, a semiconductor manufacturer, to consider converting some or all of the Chips Act subsidies into the company's shares, with the goal of obtaining 10% of Intel's shares.
According to Bloomberg's statement cited by people familiar with the matter, the market price of this 10% of Intel shares is about $10 billion. Intel has received or is expected to receive a total of $10.9 billion in the chip act subsidy for commercial and military production, which is sufficient to support the government's shareholding plan. Despite gains last week due to market expectations for U.S. government support, Intel shares closed down about 3.7% on the 18th. Intel refused to comment on this report, and Baigong did not respond to the relevant content.
reported that after Intel Executive Director Chen Liwu met with President Trump, Trump said the meeting was "very interesting", which made the US government possible to acquire stakes in Intel. This shows that Trump has taken unprecedented expectations in corporate operations. Market analysts pointed out that the support of the federal government may give Intel's insured crystallographic foundry business a breathing space. However, the company still faces challenges of weak product development and difficult to attract customers to use its crystalline foundry services.
In fact, Trump has promoted billions of dollars in the semiconductor and rare earth sectors in the past, such as reaching a 15% capital acquisition agreement with NVIDIA (Nvidia) and a rare earth producer MP Materials to ensure key mineral supply. In this regard, Clark Geranen, a market strategist at CalBay Investments, believes that the U.S. government is playing Chinese cards to try to exert more control over some of the production of these companies. From the perspective of the free market, the expectations of corporate cooperation with the new government may not last long. The U.S. government has also acquired shares in the past when companies face pressure. For example, during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, the government had held stakes in General Motors and withdrew in 2013.
In 2024, under the leadership of former executive Pat Gelsinger, Intel received nearly $8 billion in subsidies to restore the company's manufacturing advantages to build new crystal plants in Ohio and other states, the largest expenditure under the "Diagram Act". However, the current executive director Chen Liwu has reduced these investment plans and slowed down the construction speed of Ohio Crystal Factory. He plans to establish a line based on service needs, which may conflict with Trump's goal of promoting the boost of American manufacturing.