The U.S. government is holding talks with Intel Corp. about buying a stake in the chipmaker, Bloomberg reported today.
Shares of the company jumped more than 7% on the news.
Last Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump called on Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan to resign over his investments in Chinese chip companies. On Monday, Trump met with Tan at the White House and described his career as “an amazing story.” Bloomberg’s sources said the plan to have the U.S. government take a stake in Intel stem from that meeting.
According to the publication, the chipmaker may use the investment to support the construction of its Ohio fab complex. Intel broke ground on the site in 2022 with the goal of beginning chip production this year. In March, it pushed back the launch date to 2030.
Intel’s Ohio campus is set to house two fabs that will carry a $28 billion price tag. The factories are expected to use the chipmaker’s upcoming 14A process, which could be the first from the company to use High NA EUV machines. Those are $400 million lithography systems that can etch transistors into silicon wafers more granularly than the hardware used in fabs today.
The Ohio complex is part of an effort by Intel to take on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. in the contract chip manufacturing market. The company is also spending $32 billion to build two new fabs in Arizona. Yet despite those investments, Intel has not yet secured a major customer for its foundry business.
Last November, the Biden administration provided Intel with $7.86 billion in CHIPS Act funding to support its chip manufacturing push. About a fifth of that sum is earmarked for Intel’s Ohio site. Separately, the company has won a $3 billion grant to make chips for the U.S. defense sector through an initiative called Secure Enclave.
There’s no word on the size of the stake that the government could take in Intel or when the deal might close. Additionally, it’s unclear whether the Trump administration may seek a so-called golden share like the one it received in U.S. Steel after the company’s sale this year. The golden share in U.S. Steel enables the White House to veto plant closures and certain other business moves.
Intel said in a statement responding to the Bloomberg report that “we look forward to continuing our work with the Trump Administration to advance these shared priorities, but we are not going to comment on rumors or speculation.”
Photo: Thomas Cloer/Flickr
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