WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration is in talks for the federal government to take a 10% equity stake in the troubled chipmaker company Intel, White House officials confirmed.
The discussions, which come as Intel has struggled to open manufacturing centers planned in the United States, would be one of the largest government interventions in the private industry since the bailout of the U.S. auto industry under former President Barack Obama.
“It’s a creative idea that has never been done before to ensure that we’re both reassuring these critical supply chains while also gaining something of it for the American taxpayer,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at an Aug. 19 press briefing when asked about the government potentially acquiring stake in Intel.
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Leavitt said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutick is “ironing out the details.” Any deal between the U.S. and Intel would likely require approval from the company’s board of directors.
During an interview earlier in the day on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the federal government would take an equity stake in Intel in exchange for billions in federal grants awarded to the company by the Biden administration.
“The stake would be a conversion of the grants and maybe increase the investment into Intel to help stabilize the company for chip production here in the U.S.,” Bessent said.
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A spokeswoman for Intel declined to comment on the discussions.
Former President Joe Biden’s Chips and Science Act, signed into law in 2022, included $39 billion in subsidies to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the incentives as giveaways.
Bloomerg News, which first reported on the discussions, said a 10% stake in the chipmaker would be worth around $10.5 billion ‒ an amount that would nearly match the $10.9 billion in federal grants Intel has received for commercial and military production.
The greatest beneficiary of the Biden law was Intel, which announced several projects with help from the incentives including a sprawling semiconductor facility outside Columbus, Ohio, that the company hoped would become “the largest semiconductor manufacturing site on the planet.”
The Ohio project has been marred by delays, however. Intel’s first Ohio plant was originally set to open in 2025, but financial challenges forced the company to delay that opening to 2030 or 2031.
Lutnick told CNBC that the U.S. wants a return on any “investment” in Intel. “We should get an equity stake for our money,” the Commerce secretary said in a separate interview with the network. “Instead of just giving grants away.”
The Intel arrangment wouldn’t be the first time Trump has secured U.S. stake of private companies during his second term. As part of a merger between Japanese-based Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel that Trump approved in June, Nippon granted his administration a “golden share” in the company.
Contributing: Max Filby, Columbus Dispatch; Reuters
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tech bailout? Trump in talks about taking 10% stake in Intel
