Or... what's going on here, exactly? Do we really want the federal government owning private industry?

https://www.wsj.com/tech/us-stake-intel-1ff24500?st=iaD4UD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Intel and the Trump administration are discussing the possibility of the U.S. government taking a financial stake in the troubled chip maker, according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that could advance the president’s America-first manufacturing agenda while relieving political pressure on the company’s beleaguered chief executive.

President Trump discussed the idea—which is still in early stages and could fall apart—during a meeting Monday at the White House with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, according to some of the people.

Details of how such an arrangement would be structured are still being hashed out, the people said. News of the discussions was reported earlier by Bloomberg.

Intel shares ended the day up more than 7% and rose further after hours.

Last week, Trump called for Tan to step down as head of Intel, writing on his Truth Social social-media platform that the CEO was “highly conflicted,” a reference to Tan’s web of investments in Chinese technology companies.

The administration has been seeking ways to increase American market share in semiconductor manufacturing. Officials have described Intel as the domestic company with the best chance of taking on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the dominant player in chip fabrication. Tech companies across the board have been rushing to boost or emphasize their U.S. investments to win favor with Trump and get favorable policies.

“This administration knows how much leverage they have over the tech industry,” said Jim Secreto, former deputy chief of staff in the Commerce Department during the Biden administration.

A deal would be the latest of Trump’s personal interventions in the U.S. private sector. He recently secured a commitment by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices to pay the government 15% of their sales in China in exchange for export licenses. In Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel, he received a “golden share” giving him sway over how the company operates.

It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for the government to consider taking stakes in companies that aren’t in financial distress. In the first Trump administration, Attorney General William Barr suggested the U.S. take stakes in telecom companies that are rivals to China’s Huawei, though the plan didn’t go forward.

Some industry analysts think Intel might eventually need government assistance if Tan and other executives can’t turn around the business.

“Depending on how it’s structured, such a stake could give the U.S. government influence over and insights into Intel’s activities, especially when it comes to China, in a way that regulations or subsidies likely wouldn’t,” said Mira Ricardel, who served as undersecretary of commerce for industry and security in the first Trump administration.

Analysts have said it could be difficult for Intel to increase its U.S. capital spending given its business challenges. The company’s loss widened to $2.9 billion in the second quarter. Government funding alone also wouldn’t address all of Intel’s problems, which investors say include an outdated business model and a product lineup poorly suited to applications in artificial intelligence.

“Intel is deeply committed to supporting President Trump’s efforts to strengthen U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” the company said in a statement, adding that it doesn’t comment on rumors.

Before coming into Trump’s crosshairs, Tan was already under fire from Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) for his connections to China through Tan’s venture capital fund, Walden International, and through technology firm Cadence Design Systems, where Tan served as CEO from 2009 until 2021.

In late July, Cadence pleaded guilty to two charges of violating U.S. export restrictions and agreed to pay $140 million in fines. During Tan’s tenure as CEO, Cadence sold software and other technology to China’s National Defense University, a customer banned under U.S. export rules.

Some viewed Trump’s call for Tan to resign as an olive branch to national-security-minded Republicans who were unhappy with recent steps by Trump to allow American companies to sell sensitive technology to China.

Intel has struggled to compete with rivals such as Nvidia, AMD and TSMC on both the design and fabrication of the advanced chips powering the AI boom. The company’s share price has fallen by more than half since the start of last year.

Intel’s board fired previous CEO Pat Gelsinger in late 2024, a sign that directors and investors had lost confidence in his strategy of aggressively expanding the manufacturing side of the business. The board appointed Tan, who previously had served as a director, in March.

Intel was slated to receive about $8 billion from the 2022 Chips and Science Act for a plant in Ohio that has been delayed for several years. The setbacks have drawn condemnation from many lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Moreno (R., Ohio), who has called for an investigation into claims the company made to secure the government funding. The Trump administration has been making changes to the chips program and asking companies to increase the size of their investments.

In late July, Intel announced it would lay off 15% of its workforce by the end of this year and further delay the opening of the Ohio plant to beyond 2030.

Or... what's going on here, exactly? Do we really want the federal government owning private industry?

NO

Sounds like it is either the US or Japan who offered 2 billion aid package to the company

The government is too inefficient at everything they have a hand BUT as important as semiconductors are to our national defense it is important that we have the capability to make them in this country. Maybe loans or grants to a company in this country but im not a fan of the federal government owning shares of a for profit business. Seems a good way to embezzle more of our tax dollars.

Like most things, are we getting the whole story?

Ties to China and 8 billion in subsidies from Biden's chip act. I'm guessing Trump wants something for the money instead of a free hand out?



https://www.reuters.com/business/intel-shares-rise-report-possible-us-government-stake-2025-08-15/

https://fortune.com/2025/08/15/intel-trump-white-house-acquisition-stake/

The chinks have been doing it for years, and now they control the production.

I don't want government in control of it!
As far as I can remember , China has been trying to take total control of chips from Taiwan FOR YEARS NOW!
Is Trump making a move to take control of the situation ?
I don't think he wants it run by the government.
The more industry we can take from China, the better our country can compete with China!
Bottom line is more money for us , less money for China.

Sounds like a conflict of interest at the top of Intel is the problem and we sure don't need an "I am from the government and I am here to help." Also sounds like this is a play to get the CEO of Intel replaced with someone who is not connected to the foreign competition.

We certainly need to be able to produce our own chips and not be held hostage by foreign manufacturers but putting the government in charge or with an ownership stake is not the answer IMO.

^^^^^^ good response!

I still haven’t figured out this US Steel - Nippon deal. Supposedly the Trump administration has the final word when decisions are made. Will future presidents also get a vote on the steel makers business?

Aren’t they talking about a 10% stake??

Not sure that would put them “in charge”,,,,

I think those links prove what I was getting at more than whatever you're trying to point out. Sure it would be nice if we got something from the money Biden handed out under the CHIPS act besides Intel's improved babysitting ( https://tcf.org/content/commentary/chips-act-child-care-requirements-already-showing-promise/ ) .... but why would they spend that money on building a manufacturing facility if no one wants to buy their chips?
Intel's flaws are fundamental... building a plant isn't gonna fix them.

Your articles point out even more instances of the government taking a stake in private business, such as the Nippon Steel deal, the rare earth stake, and the 15% of exports to China of NVDA and AMD chips.

Chips ARE being produced in the US. TSMC operates plants in AZ and WA and are in the process of building more. Micron produces chips. And now the federal government is talking about buying up shares in those companies as well. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...ources-say/ar-AA1KPfOH?ocid=BingNewsSerp Maybe the U.S. government should just take over the production of semiconductor chips altogether? Maybe they can go beyond just manufacturing to controlling the fabless design as well... I'm sure the government could get rich off NVDA....

Who said anything about being in charge? My objection is the government owning shares of private industry period....

Someone a couple posts above mine

The ship has sailed long before we were alive if govt meddling in private business is the main objection.

Im against government meddling too, but government ownership takes it to a whole other level.

Consider this. If the government has ownership in a company, would they not be more inclined to pass legislation that favors the companies that they own, that may be detrimental to those companies' competitors?

If the government has control....which they do..
Is ownership any different?

How can a gubmint $35 trillion in debt own part of any company?

Intel stock up over 7 percent on this story? The new swamp and their king are likely enriching themselves again by meddling with private industry.

Use your brains, people.

This comes from Trump through his business background not through politics !

No secret has it ever been that the USA is behind in chip building and even plants for doing so, having been beaten to
death by China and Taiwan being the leaders, and now the USA wants to have their own source on their own ground

What better way than to take over a failing business and keep it going or growing for your own needs !

While it's not a good thing in any manner of thought for our government to be involved in owning private business, due to the government running roughshod on its own accord, I can understand wanting a chip company in their back pocket, with people already entrenched in how they work.

I don’t want it, but a couple questions other than intel or ryzen who else builds this stuff? With that how can a company get in financial trouble when there’s only a handful of chip makers and it’s one of the most sought products in the world?

You don't think they already do this?

I'm guessing that you suck at chess. No offence of course. Most people stick with playing checkers.

Maybe, but it seems the stock market isn't his priority ,now does it!

I was able to dump a few remaining shares i had overlooked when I got rid of the majority in a different account a while back. They had been down since I sold and im was glad I was finally ahead on it again and got ride of them. Even made $15. Just a few more trades like that and I can retire early

While most of us don't want government involved/owning any part of private business, it's been happening for decades. Postal service, railroads, banking, GM, and Chrysler, US Steel and now Intel to name a few. Whenever a critical company/industry is to important to fail.

TSM is the biggie as far as manufacturing goes. It is considered a semiconductor foundry. They operate 2 plants here in the US as well as plants in Taiwan, Japan, and Germany. As their name implies, they are a Taiwanese company, but many of the largest shareholders are American companies. They produce chips for Apple, Nvidia, Broadcom, Qualcomm, AMD, ARM, and interestingly enough, even Intel themselves.

So basically, fabless semiconductor companies such as Nvidia and Apple... design their own chips but do not manufacture them, instead outsourcing the fabrication to a company such as TSM. Simply, Intel is in trouble financially because they cannot compete with TSM. Their foray into running semiconductor foundries failed so epically that they had to resort to outsourcing the production of their own chips to TSM. Also of interest, TSM does NOT design chips. They only produce chips designed by others.

In addition to being unable to compete with TSM technologically, Intel has also been unable to keep up in chip design with companies such as Nvidia and AMD, whose AI chips are far more advanced than anything Intel produces.

So, Intel both designs and manufactures chips... but they do not do either nearly as well as their competitors do.

It's not really surprising that the stock would rally on this news, is it? The rumor of a struggling company getting an injection of Uncle Sam's money (which came just days after the announcement of SoftBank's $2 bil investment into INTC), coupled with the idea that that government meddling could lead to pressure on companies such as NVDA and Apple to use INTC as their foundry instead of TSM... it would have been more surprising if the stock hadn't rallied on the news. Personally, I don't think the rally for INTC will be long-lived. But then.... I also don't think the rally was the result of congressmen buying up all the stock.

It's akin to a pump and dump scheme. Read up on how those work and you'll see it.

Sooner give them the money with no return?

Thought you are against freeloaders B.C.?

Smart business in this situation. Too big to fail? Yes , our national security depends on this new technology. This is no different than any other industry we support that our defense relies on with the exception that our investment in them will give us a return. (Hopefully) lol

Actually, Hippie? Yes. If we feel the production of chips by a U.S. based company is that vitally important that we need to fund them via government grants... then yes.. give them the grants... don't take ownership in the company... that's literally socialism.

Could someone give some definitions of what the difference is between communism and socialism ?

I am for sure against freeloaders. And, socialism. I am also especially against Trump, his family and his cronies manipulating the stock market for their own personal gain--which is happening. Same for crypto market.

They were forced into crypto when banks were told to defund conservatives. look it up.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/b...mins-pressured-them-debank-conservatives
Enriching themselves how?

I realize its hopeless talking to someone as envious as you are of Trump, so bye.

It's only wrong when Democrats do it.

Blaine, frankly, your condescension is getting a bit worn and tired out. Maybe find a strategy for disagreeing with my opinion that doesn't involve trying to convince yourself that your intelligence is superior to mine. I know what pump and dump schemes are. I just feel this is more of a case of buying the rumor. The market is incredibly reactive to every news blurb that comes out these days, well, at least those that show any sign of positivity... and if you followed the market every day as I do, you would know that. Rumor comes out that a struggling tech company is gonna get a big old boost of government cheese, and the market reacts. But, the company has no real and clear prospects, so even with an influx of government cash, and SoftBank's stake.. I don't see INTC soaring to new heights.

And as I said last night, I figured the rally would be short-lived and it was, INTC has given up most of its gains from yesterday today. Which will undoubtedly convince you that you were right and that the rally was congressmen lining their pockets before selling off today and not just a market reaction to a news article. In a few weeks, Chancey will be back, maybe you and he can compare notes on how the Jews in congress are fleecing the public via insider trading and pump and dump schemes, LOL.

Sounds like communism, definition pulled straight from the dictionary.

LOL Goose... because the other party never does anything like that?

Pretty sure it sounds more like socialism.

Socialism allows for personal property and some private enterprise, focusing on collective ownership of major industries and resources.

Communism advocates for the abolition of all private property, with all means of production owned collectively by the community or the state.

Of course the other party does it. But both sides seem to think it's okay when their side does it, and it's only a problem when the other guy is doing it. When it's their guy, it's always a whataboutism....."oh yeah? What about when the other party does it?" As if that makes it okay.

Regarding the definition, that's straight out of Merriam-Webster's dictionary. Either way.....socialism or communism.....it sucks and doesn't belong in the USA.

If semiconductor manufacturing in the United States is a matter of national security, which I believe it is, it's not unusual for the U.S. government to own a company that produces such security-critical items. A good example of this is the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. They are owned by the government (U.S. Army) and contractor-operated through Winchester Ammunition. As most of us know, they produce ammunition for the military and also sell to the public.

There are all sorts of these examples both fully or partially owned by the U.S. government: FDIC, Amtrak, USPS, TVA, and so on. Most of these corporations are financial institutions in some form or another.

MEOW. Lose the inferiority complex. It's unbecoming.

Tell me how you did not just describe something akin to a pump and dump scheme--assuming Trump and his cronies bought the stock low, released the story and then sold the stock higher?

Inferiority complex, LOL. Pot meet kettle.

Because I do not assume that "Trump and his cronies bought the stock low, released the story and then sold the stock higher". That's a tinfoil-hat-level conspiracy theory there. But, as I said in my previous reply, as soon as I saw that INTC had given up its gains from yesterday today, I knew you would be convinced that that is what it was. There really is no way to counter ignorance like that, especially in college-educated people like yourself. You're convinced, because of your dislike of Trump, that you are correct and nothing is going to change your mind.

For the past two years, as I've worked to obtain my degree at the college you never miss an opportunity to discredit, I have followed the market every day. I have also been blessed to have a wonderful mentor that has honestly taught me much more about the inner workings of the market than I would have ever learned at my "low-rent" college. And in following the market, you see movements like the one INTC has had over the past 48 hours nearly every day. They're not uncommon. They're not conspiracies. It is simply Mr. Market reacting to the news cycles. For whatever reason, the market has been unusually euphoric. It has been shrugging off bad economic news as though it didn't exist, and rallying at the drop of a hat. That's all the rally of INTC yesterday was. No conspiracy, no plot to get rich off the backs of the working men.

As a side note, I am also not happy with Trump's handling of the economy, and I am certainly not happy with the government investing in private enterprise. It was I who made the initial post afterall. However, my dislike of policies enacted by a president is not enough to make me jump at every shadow. That's just silly.

Ima starting to think they give out law degrees in Crackerjack boxes.

LOL. I didn't even bring up internet college. You did. Hence, your inferiority complex.

Congrats if you got the degree!

P.S. No tinfoil hat conspiracies here. It is obvious to anyone who "follows the market everyday" that Trump and his people are manipulating the markets for gain.

Taking my last class now. Graduate in October. 4.0, so far.

And yet... the news media, who even you can't deny is overwhelmingly liberal... is saying nothing about this grand scheme of Trump's to manipulate the market for his financial gain? You don't think the SEC would be all over this? Do you even realize how absolutely ridiculous you sound? LOL

This is the nail in the coffin for me:


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-senator-sanders-favors-trump-154508520.html

A socialist supporting socialism. Who'd have thought.

Blain your missing a huge point again. You are running on the assumption Trump is making trades on Intell.

The gains were not that huge and he has much more info on much more profitable things going on to invest in.

Yotetrapper30 is correct on her assessment its just an emotional market reaction and business as usual.


Almost seem like your just mad you let your dislike of Trump keep you from buying stocks when he told the world to. I Did But never thought of myself as one of the insiders.. But i did make $15 selling intell on this news so guess I'm. . Wish Trump would have told me not to buy Target though.

The whole thing is absolutely indefensible IMO.

I would love to see Congress step up and slap him down.
Intel needs to be left alone to collapse so that resources now being wasted can be allocated to more viable projects............and not government owned projects !

INTC has tried to coast for years on their outdated products from the dot com era.
Heck they can't even complete a building project in Ohio let alone design and fabricate cutting edge chips.

They are the Kodak and Xerox of the 21st century. Intel buggy whips is what they are today

Just waiting for the predictable TDS comments, chess not checkers...rent free in your head... did I miss any??

I didn’t realize how far they’ve fallen in the world of advancement, and that explains a lot.

Market is doing well for many reasons, one of the leading ones is stock buy back. Helps promp up shares, lowers the number of stocks held by others, so less dividends to pay out and they can spread more money to share holders. Also it can be used as a way to protect from hostil take overs. There are also other reasons as I am otld by our financial advisor. I am still high in securities for my age and we will be making some financial decisions in the next month or two so hoping the market holds for a bit. If inflation continues to rise we won't see interest rate cuts and we may then be into a more stagnation type economy.

Bryce

Just waiting for the predictable TDS comments, chess not checkers...rent free in your head... did I miss any??

I think you did,...competition in the free world is a good thing.

It’s an interesting deliema,,,

Give/grant them the “free” money from the chips act???? Corporate welfare is never good,,,,,,

Take stake in failing company???? Also not a good idea,,,,,,,

All the while, trying to reduce 37 TRILLION in debt

Who is trying to reduce 37 trillion in debt?

It's going to be 50 in the not so distant future

Didn't ask about your GPA. See prior comment. But, congrats again I guess.

There has been plenty of talk about Trump manipulating the markets--especially in regard to tarriffs. Read up on that too.

Love it when Tman's EF Hutton weighs in.

Will the government “investing” in the market reduce taxation at all?

Oh yes, I'm sure for those that matter it will.

If the debt gets much higher,,,,, no one will buy it

Hence the stable/genius act

,,,,,,,,Get large corporations(Amazon /walmart/etc) to begin using their own US treasuries backed 1:1 stablecoins(crypto currency)

It’s a last ditch effort/Hail Mary trying to keep the music going




Apologies for getting a bit off topic

I guess trying to get the big money to pay their fair share of taxes would be considered socialism by a few on here ? After all, they employ lots of people and they let the money trickle down and thus make the world go round.

At this point in time,,,,,,In this case(Intel),,, giving them a tax break

Instead of “free” money, or taking a stake in the business would of been the route to go

But it’s to late for that,,

Taking a stake, and hopefully pawning it off on someone else(buffet like) later down the road would be the lesser of all evils. Hopefully regroup some of the money

No matter what happens, it’s a crappy deal

I would definitely not be buying any intel

In the small business world I grew up in if one didn't pay their bills and taxes he was sold out at the North door of the court house and let someone who would pay their bills give it a try.

Why give them grants or take a stake... versus just letting them fail?

I'm guessing our defense dept. relies on chips.

My guess is it has to do with the promise of building a huge facility in Ohio,,,vs letting them fail

Yeah... cutting edge chips like the ones made by Nvidia.

Maybe the question isn't, do we want government meddling in the chip manufacturing?, but which government do we want meddling in chip manufacturing?

Could be, I'm guessing.

When it comes to our defense, we usually no nothing of what's going on until they want us to.

There's A lot of maneuvering going on in this sector.

I"d like to hear what the Trump blamers would do if they were in charge

I would let Intel go bankrupt and direct any CHIP grant money to companies capable of producing the quality of chips that we need.

3 billion contract by Biden, then another 8 billion under the chips act is how I see it.

My guess was right about home grown chips for the military.


https://www.defense.gov/News/Releas...erce-joint-statement-announcement-in-su/

Businesses are born to die. It is the business cycle. They get fat and inefficient and someone new comes and replaces them with a better product at a better price.. Spare me the national defense nonsense. We have MAD.

Now I am off to Sears to exchange some craftsmen tools.

From WSJ: The government might for instance pressure chip designers like Nvidia, AMD or Qualcomm to manufacture with Intel, perhaps as a condition for getting export licenses for China.

And that could easily go wrong. If companies are forced to use Intel’s factories before they can make chips with production yields that match TSMC’s, it could result in inferior products and wastage by Intel because so much silicon has to be thrown out to make a working chip. More broadly, if chip designers are using Intel fabs even though they aren’t the most advanced or efficient, the entire U.S. chip industry could lose competitiveness. That would undermine the ultimate goal of government intervention in the industry, which is to maintain American technological supremacy.

The Rubicon of state intervention in chips is already crossed. The administration already has significant leverage over Intel thanks to government factory-expansion grants that place limits on how it can restructure its chip design and manufacturing arms without government consent.

But the federal government must take care not to go too far, lest it undermine the market model that made America’s technology sector the envy of the world.

Whole Article

The problem is reality. Government already owns a piece of everything. Don't pay your property tax and you will find out you don't own your land. Eliminate food stamps and watch grocery stores collapse in no time. Stop subsidizing farms and watch them go belly up. My wish is that .gov would start pulling away from this but I don't believe it will happen with Trump. I think he sees .gov investing in private business as a revenue earner, businessman like earning money, not a socialist dream. At least we have pulled out of funding NPR and PBS with more rescissions on the way. Now if only Alaska's senators, along with a few others, will support such spending cuts. Ain't holding my breath.

Alaska's senator was here in the armpit checking out a fantasy coal mine pipe dream. Probably be wasting Federal Government money on this soon if not already.

So its just INTEL I agree they're the Dinosaur much like US Steel in the 80's But your okay with giving money to someone else and i agree with that otherwise they outsource which is why we're in this predicament And if Trump who appears to be the only one in government today hands out a dollar he expects something in return and willget it unlike the trillions of handouts we're used to seeing with no idea where it went

You do know that most of the bailout money from 2008 was paid back with profit in many cases?

"US 2008 Bailout Money Recovery
Yes, the U.S. government recovered the bailout money from the 2008 financial crisis and ultimately made a profit. The primary program, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), involved federal outflows of $633.6 billion for economic bailouts, while inflows from interest, dividends, fees, and stock warrant repurchases totaled $754.8 billion, resulting in a net profit of $121 billion.
The majority of the funds were repaid by banks and other financial institutions, with the government taking shares and assets as collateral for emergency loans.
Most of the bailed-out companies, including major banks, GM, and Chrysler, paid back the amounts they received."

Doesn't make it right.

That was not the point of my post. Did I make a moral judgement? The point was Trump ain't the first politician to try and get a return on government bailouts. People's ignorance on here appalls me daily.