WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump is calling on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to immediately resign, saying that he is “highly conflicted” because of his investments in Chinese technology firms.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “There is no other solution to this problem.”
Following Trump’s TruthSocial posting the company saw a 4% drop in its shares.
Trump’s social media post comes just a day after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary expressing security and integrity concerns of Intel — a technology company best known for manufacturing semi-conductors — and how it would impact the United States’s national security. Cotton pointed to an April report by Reuters which unveiled that Tan has invested in hundreds of Chinese advanced-manufacturing and chip firms with eight of those companies reportedly having ties to the Chinese military. Tan had invested at least $200 million in these Chinese companies focused on building advanced manufacturing and chips between March 2012 and December 2024, Reuters reported.
“Intel and Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the U.S. and the integrity of our role in the U.S. defense ecosystem,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Tan became Intel’s CEO in March, taking control of a company which is lagging behind its foreign competitors like Taiwan Semiconductor and Nvidia in chip-making. Intel’s former CEO Patrick Gelsinger was ousted at the end of last year as the company “fell out” of the AI race.
“Twenty, 30 years ago, we were really the leader,” Tan shared in a meeting with employees in July. “Now I think the world has changed. We are not in the top 10 semiconductor companies.”
Tan has vowed to slash the company’s workforce by 22%, cutting more than 75,000 jobs in an effort to salvage the company’s fortune valued at $89 billion. Its top competitor Nvidia possesses a market valuation of $4 trillion.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday Trump implemented a 100% tariff on all imported computer chips; however Trump said that if companies are “building in the United States or have committed to build, without question,” then “there will be no charge.”
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