Trump Says US Should Have Taken Bigger Stake In Intel During Talks With CEO: Report

Donald Trump has said he should have asked for "more" of chipmaker Intel Corporation during earlier talks with its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, on behalf of the US government, according to a report.

Trump, in an interview with Fortune, told Tan that the US should get a "10% ownership for free" in Intel. He says Tan agreed quickly, and in response, he joked that he should have demanded even more than 10%.

He said he should get credit for a government deal that gave the US a stake in chipmaker Intel, which is now worth over $50 billion. "Do I get credit for it? Does anybody even know I did ⁠that?" he said.

Trump also said that if he had been in office earlier and used tariffs to protect American chip companies, Intel would have become much bigger and stronger. He added that he would have imposed tariffs on imported chips like Taiwan's TSMC to protect American companies like Intel.

Currently, TSMC is the world leader in making advanced chips, and it is worth about $1.84 trillion, while Intel is much smaller at around $547 billion.

Earlier, the US government decided to support Intel because the company was struggling and its stock price had fallen badly. Under the CHIPS Act, the government took unused grant money for about $5.7 billion and added another $3.2 billion from other programs. 

After this, Intel's stock price went up sharply by over 300%. April became Intel's best month ever on the Nasdaq stock exchange. At one point, the stock even more than doubled in a single month. Apple is reportedly discussing a deal where Intel could help make chips for Apple devices.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said he may rely on Intel for chips in his future $119 billion "Terafab" project.

Trump also said the US is currently ahead of China in artificial intelligence (AI), and he stressed that it is important for the US to stay ahead and "win" in this technology race.