Intel posted details of the plan soon afterward, declareing the administration would build an $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, paid for with the CHIPS grant money. The company stated the stake would be funded with $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded but not yet paid, and $3.2 billion from a separate Defense Department program.
It stated the Trump administration will take “passive ownership, with no Board representation or other governance or information rights.”
“We are grateful for the confidence the President and the Administration have placed in Intel, and we view forward to working to advance U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” Tan stated in a statement.
The deal appears to rewrite the terms of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, under which Intel received $10.9 billion in grants to boost American chipbuilding.
The unusual deal drew scattered criticism from Republicans who saw it as violating free-market principles.
“I don’t care if it’s a dollar or a billion dollar stake in an American company, that starts feeling like a semi-state owned enterprise, à la [the Chinese Communist Party],” stated Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.), in comments that surfaced Friday. “You’re going to have to explain to me how this reconciles with free-market capitalism.”
