Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan makes a speech on stage in Taipei, Taiwan Could 19, 2025.
Ann Wang | Reuters
President Donald Trump mentioned Monday that he and members of his cupboard met with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, days after he called on the top of the chipmaker to resign. Intel shares rose 2% in prolonged buying and selling.
“I met with Mr. Lip-Bu Tan, of Intel, together with Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent,” Trump wrote in a submit on Truth Social. “The assembly was a really attention-grabbing one. His success and rise is an incredible story. Mr. Tan and my Cupboard members are going to spend time collectively, and convey ideas to me in the course of the subsequent week. Thanks to your consideration to this matter!”
Intel did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Tan has been an Intel director since 2022, and in March he changed Pat Gelsinger as CEO. Final week Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., questioned Tan’s ties to China. Cotton introduced up a previous legal case involving Cadence Design, the place Tan had been CEO, and requested whether or not Intel required Tan to divest from positions in chipmakers linked to the Chinese language Communist Occasion, the Folks’s Liberation Military and another regarding entities in China.
Trump’s tennis message marks a stark change in tone from final week. In a Reality Social submit on Thursday, the president wrote that Tan “is extremely CONFLICTED and should resign, instantly. There isn’t a different resolution to this downside.”
Intel mentioned in a comment later that day that the corporate, administrators and Tan are “deeply dedicated to advancing U.S. nationwide and financial safety pursuits.”
The Trump administration has taken a heavy hand within the enterprise world, notably within the semiconductor market, because the U.S. battles with China for supremacy in synthetic intelligence. Over the weekend, Nvidia agreed to pay the federal authorities a 15% reduce in return for receiving export management licenses that can enable it to as soon as once more promote its H20 chip to China and Chinese language firms. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Trump within the White Home on Friday.
President Trump on Monday mentioned that he initially requested Nvidia for a 20% reduce of the chipmaker’s gross sales to China, however the quantity got here down to fifteen% after CEO Jensen Huang negotiated with him.
“I mentioned, ‘pay attention, I would like 20% if I’ll approve this for you, for the nation,'” Trump said at a information convention in Washington, D.C.
Tan, 65, took over Intel after the struggling chipmaker had failed to achieve important traction within the AI market, which Nvidia dominates, whereas it was burning money to construct its foundry enterprise for chip manufacturing.
Tan was born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore earlier than shifting to the U.S. and receiving a grasp’s diploma from the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise. He mentioned in late July that his first few months as Intel’s CEO had not been straightforward, with layoffs and cuts to the foundry division. Intel canceled plans for manufacturing websites in Germany and Poland and would decelerate improvement in Ohio, he instructed staff.
“Turning the corporate round will take time and require endurance,” Tan mentioned on a convention name with analysts in July. “We now have so much to repair to be able to transfer the corporate ahead.”
Intel shares are up 3% this 12 months as of Monday’s shut. The S&P 500 is up 8.4%.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
