It was a Thursday before dawn in Silicon Valley when Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan found himself under attack by the president of the United States.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at 4:39 a.m. Pacific Time on August 7. Before becoming Intel’s chief executive, Tan had been a prolific investor in China, a fact that had put him under scrutiny in Washington.
Trump and Tan had never met. While technology leaders from Nvidia, AMD, OpenAI, Amazon, Google and Palantir had recently traveled to see Trump, the head of America’s most storied chipmaker had not spent time with the president since joining Intel in March.
Politics was not Tan’s top priority. It had been more than two decades since the 66-year-old donated to a presidential campaign. Though he spoke with a handful of U.S. government leaders, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in April, Intel did not fill its top Washington policy role for months after the previous holder, a Democrat, resigned.
Almost immediately after Trump’s attack, Intel scrambled to secure time with the president, according to two people familiar with the situation. That effort culminated in what would become the most pivotal, roughly 40-minute meeting of Tan’s decades-long career.
Previously unreported details about Tan and Intel show how a man accused by Trump of supporting China’s interests emerged from the Oval Office with a commitment from the U.S. government to invest billions of dollars for nearly a 10% stake in Intel.
The deal gave Intel a “too-strategic-to-fail” aura and opened doors to potential partners eager to win the president’s favor. It also signaled a possible shift toward greater government equity stakes in companies deemed strategic, a move some investors say marks a new era of U.S. industrial policy.
Intel’s share price has climbed roughly 80% since Tan’s appointment, outperforming both the S&P 500 and Nvidia over the same period.
Reuters spoke with about 20 current and former Intel employees, government advisers and Tan’s industry contacts. Some questioned whether Tan has the technical depth to restore Intel’s leadership in chip manufacturing or craft a winning artificial intelligence strategy. Even so, many acknowledged that his skills as a dealmaker proved decisive in Washington.
Once a pioneer whose chips powered the first mass-market personal computers, Intel had fallen behind foreign competitors such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. after years of internal dysfunction.
In a statement, an Intel spokesperson said Tan needed no persuading to engage with the Trump administration. Early in his tenure, he elevated government affairs to report directly to him, and Intel announced in December that a Trump economic adviser would lead the unit.
“Lip-Bu Tan has a long, and well-established history of engagement in Washington, both before and after joining Intel,” the spokesperson said. Intel declined to make Tan available for an interview.
A White House spokesperson said Trump was using executive authority to secure “the best bargain for the American taxpayer” and protect U.S. security.
“The administration’s historic deal with Intel is one of many initiatives to reshore semiconductor and other critical manufacturing back to the United States,” the spokesperson said.
Forty minutes in the Oval Office
Ahead of the White House meeting, Tan reached out to allies with strong ties to Trump, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, asking them to vouch for him, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Tan also rehearsed how to present himself as an American patriot, focusing on his personal story and his commitment to the United States, and prepared to address questions about his China investments, the people said.
Tan has made roughly 600 investments in China, some linked to the country’s military, according to prior Reuters reporting. Those ties put him squarely in Trump’s crosshairs. Two of Tan’s investment firms, Walden International and Walden Catalyst, did not respond to requests for comment. A third firm, Celesta Capital, said it had one China investment that it exited in 2020.
Only two cabinet members joined Trump and Tan in the Oval Office: Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, one of the sources said. Trump pressed Tan on his plan to revive Intel.
Tan had previously told Lutnick he did not want billions in grants Intel was due under the 2022 CHIPS Act, Lutnick said later in a video posted on X. When Trump proposed instead that the U.S. receive equity in exchange for additional funding an idea Lutnick had been discussing internally for weeks Tan agreed.
The deal delivered a $5.7 billion cash infusion and positioned the U.S. government as Intel’s largest shareholder. Afterward, Tan pledged to “make Intel great again” in a video shared by Lutnick with the caption, “The Art of the Deal: Intel.”
Within weeks, Tan secured a partnership with Nvidia that brought $5 billion into Intel. Trump celebrated the agreement on social media, posting an AI-generated image of himself examining Intel’s rising stock price and noting that the value of the U.S. stake had jumped by 50%.
A venture capitalist at the helm
Born in Malaysia to a journalist father and teacher mother, Tan initially studied hard sciences with aspirations of becoming a nuclear engineer before pivoting to business. He entered venture capital in California in the early 1980s and built a reputation for backing startups that later went public or were acquired, amassing a personal fortune estimated at more than $500 million.
Some insiders say Tan’s dealmaking prowess can only go so far at Intel. Chip manufacturing, they argue, demands deep engineering expertise, and rivals such as Nvidia are led by engineers by training.
Still, several Wall Street analysts see Tan as a strong choice, citing his decades of semiconductor industry experience and record of delivering shareholder returns.
Inside Intel, Tan confronted a sprawling organization of about 100,000 employees and an expensive factory-building strategy launched under his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger. The company needed tens of billions of dollars to compete for customers.
Tan moved quickly to reshape management, laying off roughly 15% of staff, flattening hierarchies and bypassing middle managers to hear directly from engineers. He named longtime Intel engineer Pushkar Ranade as his chief of staff and later elevated him to interim chief technology officer.
Tan’s outside investment interests have occasionally raised concerns. Earlier this year, Intel’s board pushed back on a proposed acquisition after questions surfaced about conflicts tied to Tan’s venture portfolio, Reuters reported.
Intel said Tan is working daily to transform the company, describing him as a “highly engaged CEO” restoring accountability and an engineering-focused culture.
A lifeline for Intel
The U.S. investment has already acted as a catalyst. Intel executives say Trump has hosted technology leaders whose companies could become Intel customers. The same week as the White House deal, Intel announced a $2 billion investment from SoftBank, whose founder Masayoshi Son has long ties to Tan.
Some foreign chipmakers worry the government stake could tilt the playing field in Intel’s favor. A Commerce Department official said the investment gives Intel a chance, not a guarantee, of success.
While Intel has gained momentum on deals, challenges remain in manufacturing. Nvidia recently tested Intel’s advanced 18A production process but did not proceed, according to people familiar with the matter.
Intel says its next-generation technologies are progressing well and insists interest remains strong.
For now, Tan’s 40 minutes in the Oval Office have reshaped Intel’s fortunes turning a public rebuke from the president into a government-backed lifeline for one of America’s most iconic technology companies.
With information from Reuters.
