The White House confirmed talks for the Trump administration to acquire up to a 10% stake in Intel, citing national security and economic priorities. The move would be unusual for a government to take such a large corporate stake but follows a pattern of targeted interventions. Recent comparable actions include Nvidia and AMD agreeing to payments tied to China sales, a "golden share" in the US Steel sale to Nippon Steel, and the government becoming the largest shareholder in MP Materials' rare earths mine. Observers characterize the approach as one-off, company-specific deals rather than industry-wide policy.
The White House has confirmed that the Trump administration is in talks with Intel about acquiring a stake of up to 10% in the chipmaker. "The president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday after days of media speculation over a possible deal. Although it would be unusual for the US government to take a stake in such a large company, it would align with President Donald Trump's trend of intervening in the free market during his second term.
Chipmakers Nvidia and AMD recently agreed to pay around 15% of their sales in China to the US government. Another example was the recent sale of US Steel to Japan's Nippon Steel, a deal which gave the US government a so-called "golden share," giving President Trump sweeping veto power over US Steel's corporate decisions and the right to appoint a board member. There was also the announcement last month that the US government would become the biggest shareholder in the US's only operational rare earths mine, owned by MP Materials.
"The Trump administration is really taking a broad view of what is possible for US government interventions in the private sector and very much pushing the limit," Geoffrey Gertz, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told DW. Trump has focused directly on Intel in recent weeksImage: Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS He describes the recent moves as "unusual," drawing a distinction between other administrations' attempts to stimulate entire sectors and Trump's more personal, targeted approach. "They're cutting one-off deals with individual companies," he said. "That's quite a different approach from setting industry-wide industrial policy standards or guidelines."
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