President Trump says he regrets not asking for a bigger piece of Intel when the US government bought in last year. In an interview with Fortune, Trump revealed that he wishes he had demanded more than the 9.9 percent stake the government received in exchange for converting roughly $8.9 billion in CHIPS Act subsidies into equity. The deal, struck in August, gave the US 433 million shares at $20.47 each. Eight months later, that stake is worth more than $50 billion — a paper profit of over $41 billion.
That windfall didn't happen by accident. The government has been actively pulling strings. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has reached a preliminary deal to have Intel manufacture its chips, breaking TSMC's long-running monopoly on Apple's business. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a major Intel shareholder, has been meeting regularly with Tim Cook to push Apple to send some orders Intel's way. With Nvidia and other AI chip giants gobbling up TSMC's limited capacity, Apple — desperate for chips — finally caved.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been busy too. Since taking the helm a year ago, he has locked in three big-name partners: Nvidia invested $5 billion in September to have Intel make data center CPUs, and Elon Musk just announced a joint venture factory in Texas. To handle the influx, Intel is pouring money into its cutting-edge 14A process and even hired away TSMC's Wei-Jen Lo — at the risk of a lawsuit — to run its foundry business. The good news sent Intel's stock soaring to an all-time high of $132.75.
Trump shared details of his negotiation with Tan: he directly asked for a free 10 percent stake for the US. When Tan agreed without hesitation, Trump says he regretted not asking for more — and joked that he should have. He also claimed that Intel should be the largest company in the world, and that if he had come to office earlier and slapped tariffs on imported chips, all of TSMC's manufacturing would belong to Intel. As for the government's stake, Trump says he wants to sell it down slowly — without crashing the stock.