Donald Trump has called on Intel’s chief executive to resign, alleging Lip-Bu Tan had ties to the Chinese Communist party, sending the stock of the US chipmaker falling.
“The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social about Tan. “There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”
Shares in Intel dropped more than 3% in early trading. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
Trump’s comments came a day after he threatened a 100% tariff on imported semiconductors and chips, which could favor Intel as a US-based semiconductor firm.
Trump did exclude Taiwan Semiconductor and Apple, companies that have said they plan to increase their investments in US manufacturing.
Apple chief Tim Cook announced from the White House that the company would invest $100bn in US chip fabrication.
Trump’s criticism of Intel, which has lagged chipmakers such as Nvidia in producing graphics-processing chips suitable for AI applications, comes after Arkansas senator Tom Cotton wrote a letter to company chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army, the party’s military arm.
Cotton, a Republican, asked Intel’s board if Tan had divested his interests and questioned if Tan’s previous leadership of Cadence Design Systems, a company that last month said it had sold products to China’s National University of Defense Technology, a violation of US export controls.
Cotton said Tan controlled dozens of Chinese companies, at least eight of which had ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
In a statement, the company said: “Intel and Mr Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the United States and the integrity of our role in the US defense ecosystem. We appreciate Senator Cotton’s focus on these shared priorities. We look forward to addressing these matters with the senator.”
Tan, 65, is regarded as an industry veteran in technology and venture capital. He was tapped to lead the once-dominant personal computing and laptop chipmaker in March as part of a turnaround effort. Intel’s market valuation is about $89bn, compared with $4.4tn for rival Nvidia.
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Tan, 65, has said he wants to sell off Intel assets that are not core to the company’s revitalization, cut jobs and to delay or cancel projects to reduce operating expenses. Intel has received about $8bn from the Chips and Science Act for US investments, the Biden-era legislation framed as a national security imperative to reduce US dependence on foreign chip production.
A number of foreign-based chipmakers have recently announced they are boosting US chip production , including Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung.
Beneficiaries of the Chips Act besides Intel include TSMC, Micron Technology, Samsung, GlobalFoundries and Texas Instruments. But the $1bn grants are dwarfed by more than $400bn in pledged private-sector investments.
The Trump administration wants Congress to scrap the Chips Act, arguing that tariffs are a more effective incentive for companies to build fabrication plants on US soil, pointing to TSMC’s decision to expand its chipmaking capacity from three to six plants in Arizona.
