President Trump and his team offered multiple signals Monday that last week’s deal to take a share of Intel (INTC) could be just the beginning of what they hope is a new wave of government dealmaking.
Speaking in the Oval Office Monday morning, Trump said he wanted to see “many more cases” like Intel, and that part of his recent pitch to the company’s CEO was that if they agreed to the deal, then “you have the United States as a partner.”
“I want them to do well,” the president said of the chipmaker, adding that it was true before but saying, “I want them to do well in particular now.”
Trump’s comments came after a post on Monday touting the deal, where the president promised, “I will make deals like that for our Country all day long.”
This latest wave of White House commentary came after the business world spent the weekend digesting the novel agreement, which saw the US government take a 9.9% stake in Intel after buying 433.3 million shares in the chipmaker at a price of $20.47 per share.
It raised immediate questions about how closely the government would be involved in Intel’s operations — as well as those of other companies that might agree to similar future deals.
The investment in Intel will technically be passive ownership, with the government getting no board representation or other governance or information rights.
One Trump aide promised that the government would not be in the business of Intel’s day-to-day operations. “The government is going to stay out of it,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said of Intel’s operations during a CNBC appearance Monday. Hassett also suggested additional similar deals could be in the offing
Hassett called Intel a “very special case” and gave a sign of the Trump team’s overall goal — calling last week’s deal a “down payment on a sovereign wealth fund.”
“The president has made it clear all the way back to the campaign that he thinks that, in the end, it would be great if the US could start to build up a sovereign wealth fund. And so I’m sure that at some point there’ll be more transactions, if not in this industry in other industries,” Hassett added.
The Intel deal was funded by billions initially promised as government grants under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law.
Trump renegotiated these as an equity stake from $2.2 billion in CHIPS Act grants already received by Intel, and future investment plans are expected to total $11.1 billion.
But Trump’s comments suggesting his additional interest in Intel’s success may further inflame corporate fears of Oval Office interference in business decisions. The president has had few qualms during his term so far about weighing in on individual company decisions.
On tariffs, Trump has regularly threatened companies that have been critical of his tariff plans, telling them to “eat” the additional costs. As the president told Walmart (WMT) at one point: “I’ll be watching.”
The government also allowed Nvidia (NVDA) to sell its H20 chips to China, on the condition that the government would get a 15% cut of sales. AMD (AMD) also agreed to the same deal for its own chips sold to China.
Trump’s team also acquired a “golden share” with key veto rights as part of the recent Nippon Steel purchase of US Steel.
“It’s called business,” Trump added Monday, saying Intel was willing to give up a stake in its company.
As for other possible deals the government might strike, Trump was clear: “I want to try and get as much as I can.”
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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