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SANDERS BACKS TRUMP PLAN FOR GOVERNMENT STAKE IN INTEL  
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August 20, 2025
Al Jazeera
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_ The new stake in the tech giant aims to increase US semiconductor
chip production. _

The United States government’s interest in the semiconductor
chipmaker has spooked investors, sending Intel stock tumbling 7.1
percent , Paul Sakuma /AP

 

United States Senator Bernie Sanders has thrown his support behind US
President Donald Trump’s plan to convert US grants to chipmakers,
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including $10.9bn for Intel, into government stakes in the companies.

The senator for the state of Vermont announced his support on
Wednesday.

“If microchip companies make a profit from the generous grants they
receive from the federal government, the taxpayers of America have a
right to a reasonable return on that investment,” Sanders, an
independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement to the
Reuters news agency.

The awards were part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which sought
to lure chip production away from Asia and boost American domestic
semiconductor output with $39bn in subsidies.

The acronym CHIPS in the name of the legislation stands for
“Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors”.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now looking into the
government taking equity stakes in embattled Intel and other
chipmakers in exchange for the grants as the Trump administration
seeks “equity” in return for “investments”.

RARE BIPARTISANSHIP

The unusual alignment between Sanders and Trump on government
ownership stakes in private companies highlights a marked shift by
Trump toward policies of state intervention in the economy that are
typically associated with the left.

Since Trump took office for a second time in January, he agreed to
allow AI chip giants Nvidia and AMD to sell AI chips to China in
exchange for the US government receiving 15 percent
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of revenues from the sales.

The Pentagon is also set to become the largest shareholder in a small
mining company to boost the output of rare earth magnets. And the US
government negotiated for itself a “golden share” with certain
veto rights as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to buy US Steel.

Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, had proposed an
amendment to the CHIPS Act that would have forbidden the Commerce
Department from granting a CHIPS Act award without the Treasury
Department receiving a warrant, equity stake or senior debt instrument
issued by the recipient company.

“I am glad the Trump administration is in agreement with the
amendment I offered three years ago,” Sanders said. “Taxpayers
should not be providing billions of dollars in corporate welfare to
large, profitable corporations like Intel without getting anything in
return.”

Much of the funding for CHIPS Act award recipients such as Micron,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung has not been
disbursed.

Trump’s interest in Intel is also being driven by his desire to
boost chip production in the US, which has been a focal point of the
trade war that he has been waging throughout the world. By lessening
the country’s dependence on chips manufactured overseas
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the president believes the US will be better positioned to maintain
its technological lead on China in the race to create artificial
intelligence.

Earlier this month, Trump called on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign.

The demand was triggered by reports raising national security concerns
about Tan’s past investments in Chinese tech companies while he was
a venture capitalist. But Trump has since backed off after Tan
professed his allegiance to the US to Intel employees and went to the
White House to meet with the president, who applauded the Intel CEO
for having an “amazing story
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This comes as Intel is also in talks with other large investors to
receive an equity infusion at a discounted price just days after the
chipmaker got a $2bn capital injection from the SoftBank Group,
according to CNBC.

On Wall Street, investors have not responded well to the
government’s potential new role. Intel stock is down 7.1 percent
from the market open as of 1:30pm in New York (17:30 GMT).

* Government ownership
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* US Industrial Policy; CHIPS and Science Act of 2022; Inflation
Reduction Act; US Unions: Semiconductor Insdustry
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