Chipmaker Intel is the latest tech company facing political pressure from President Trump.
On Thursday, Trump called for the immediate resignation of Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan, who took the helm in March to turn around the beleaguered company.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Trump didn’t say what the conflicts were in his post, but his remarks came after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sent a letter to Intel’s board, expressing national security concerns about Tan’s reported ties to Chinese companies. Cotton cited a report from Reuters that said Tan has invested in more than 600 Chinese firms and some of them have links to the country’s military.
Trump’s call for Tan’s resignation adds to a list of issues Intel already has to deal with.
The 57-year-old tech company, once the most valuable U.S. chipmaker, is trying to keep up as the race to dominate artificial intelligence escalates. The Santa Clara, Calif., company has been losing money and has seen its stock price plunge while it falls behind rivals such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.
Intel’s share price closed at $19.77 on Thursday, down 3%.
The company said in a statement that its board and Tan are “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests and are making significant investments aligned with the President’s America First agenda.”
Trump said Wednesday during an event in which Apple announced an additional $100-billion investment in the United States that he plans to place a tariff on semiconductors, but that there won’t be a charge for companies building in the U.S.
Although he praised companies such as Apple and Nvidia, he criticized Intel.
“Intel was just taken over the coals. They were taken to the cleaners, frankly, and moved to other places, in particular Taiwan,” Trump said at the event.
Intel, known for making the “brains” that power computers, has been investing heavily in its foundry business, taking on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips for companies including Apple and Nvidia. During the Biden administration, the Department of Commerce awarded Intel roughly $8 billion to support manufacturing and advanced packaging projects in the U.S.
