Trump's Trials - Trump administration wants government to have an equity stake in chipmaker Intel

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

The Trump administration is pursuing an unusual deal that would make the U.S. government a major stakeholder in chipmaker Intel. NPR unpacks the proposal with Bloomberg reporter Mackenzie Hawkins.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. We're going to be doing all sorts of things. Nobody ever thought was even possible. President Trump has brought back string to the White House. We can't just ignore the president's desires. This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode of Trump's terms, we bring you NPR's latest coverage of the 47th president.

With a focus on actions and policies he is pursuing on his own terms and in the process, taking the presidency into uncharted territory. Today's story starts right after this. There's a lot of news happening. You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't want it to be your entire life either. Well, that's sort of like our show, here and now anytime. Every weekday on our podcast, we talk to people all over the country about everything from political analysis to climate resilience, video games. We even talk about dumpster diving on this show. Check out Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR.

Maybe you're wondering, how do I see? escape quicksand, or how do I break up with my dentist? Well, season two of NPR's How to Do Everything podcast is launching this fall, and we will attempt to answer your questions. Sometimes we'll actually succeed. Send us your questions at how to at npr.org. That's how to at npr.org. I'm Michelle Martin. The Trump administration wants to own a piece of the chipmaker Intel.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutner confirmed this in an interview on CNBC. For national security, we need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan, which is 9,500 miles away from us, and only 80 miles from China. The Chips and Science Act, which is signed by President Biden, aimed to keep chipmaking in the U.S. by giving $8 billion in direct funding to companies. Now, instead of giving money to Intel, the Trump administration, wants equity. Mackenzie Hawkins covers the semiconductor industry from Bloomberg, and she joins us now from Hong Kong to tell us more about this. Welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks so much for having me. So this idea of the government taking equity in a private business is something most of us don't remember. I mean, my understanding, this hasn't happened since World War II. So now the government is taking something called a golden chair in Nippon steel as part of its acquisition of U.S. steel that allows it to appoint a board member and block certain moves. So as to the chipmaker Intel, what is the administration saying about why claiming a share of that company benefits the American people? So there's a lot that we don't know about what a U.S. stake in Intel would look like. Something that Lutnik did share yesterday was that the U.S. is not seeking a governing stake.

It's non-voting. What they're doing, they say, is converting Chips Act grants that were awarded under President Joe Biden. Intel reached a contract with the Biden administration or under the Biden administration for almost $8 billion in direct funding to support factories in the U.S. into equity. And in Latinx words, why are we giving a company worth $100 billion this kind of money? And what is in it for the American taxpayer? The answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money. The administration has been pursuing what they call a, quote, benefit of the bargain for taxpayers under the Chipsack since the start of the admin. And this is sort of the first concrete example of a really substantive change that we see them potentially making to one of the Chips Act awards. Could Intel say no?

We haven't seen Intel comments specifically on this equity stake arrangement yet. There's been a lot of whiplash for the company over the past couple of weeks. President Donald Trump called for Intel's new CEO's ouster over concerns about past ties to China and investments in China. We saw Intel CEO, LeButan, go to the White House, meet with president and cabinet members. Trump said he had an amazing story. And now we see this conversation where the administration is concerned about, you know, is Intel going to execute on these factories that they've promised, particularly in the state of Ohio, and this major U.S. company that's critical to American national security strategy in the semiconductor sector.

These are ongoing conversations. All Intel has said is they're committed to working with the administration, and they support the overall goals of revitalizing the American chip-making industry. So, you know, critics of the administration have said, or critics of this proposal, has said that they fear that this is a leading edge toward nationalizing private business. Has the administration responded to that kind of criticism? So the administration says, you know, we don't want to sort of give blank checks to companies. We want, you know, we're not going to take a governing stake in Intel, although we have definitely seen Trump officials take a more sort of interventionalist approach into a range of sectors, not just semiconductors, also rare earths, as you mentioned, the Nippon Steel deal. And they say, this is how we're going to get the benefit of the bargain for the taxpayer.

How that actually shakes out over time will be really interesting. interesting to watch. You know, there's a huge question of, is Intel going to have customers to support this massive factory expansion? You need people to actually buy the chips. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said yesterday, quote, there's no talk of trying to force companies to buy from Intel. But we've also seen Intel struggle to secure some of these orders. You know, Biden officials tried to encourage companies like Nvidia or AMD to kind of pursue manufacturing contracts with Intel. So there's a lot remains to be seen over whether this equity stake makes a meaningful difference for the company's long-term production ambitions.

Very quickly. Does this tie into Intel's plants to try to open two semiconductor plants in Ohio, which is the home state of Vice President J.D. Vance? It absolutely does. You know, a large share of Intel's nearly $8 billion Chips Act Award was slated specifically to support that facility, which has been delayed several times. And we've reported that the Ohio facility is a major focus for the admin. Mackenzie Hawkins covers the semiconductor industry for Bloomberg. Mackenzie, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks.

Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thank for listening to Trump's terms from NPR. How would you describe the discourse around sexiness online in three words or less? I would say polarized, ideological, and unrooted from reality. I just thought corny, not corny. I'm Brittany Luce. I'm Brittany Luce.

If you're surprised to hear the words sexy, and horny in the same sentence as NPR, you'll be shocked to hear what else I'm talking about. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast today. I'm Rachel Martin, host of Wildcard from NPR. I've spent years interviewing all kinds of people, and I've realized there are ideas that we all think about, but don't talk about very much. So I made a shortcut, a deck of cards with questions that anyone can answer, questions that go deep into the experiences that shape us.

Listen to the Wildcard podcast only from NPR.