Amidst heightening tensions with China, U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that Intel’s CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, must step down, accusing Tan of harboring conflicts of interest.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump did not share any evidence or details of why Tan may have conflicts of interest.
“Intel, the Board of Directors, and Lip-Bu Tan are deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests and are making significant investments aligned with the President’s America First agenda,” Intel said in a statement. “Intel has been manufacturing in America for 56 years. We are continuing to invest billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, including our new fab in Arizona that will run the most advanced manufacturing process technology in the country, and are the only company investing in leading logic process node development in the U.S. We look forward to our continued engagement with the Administration.”
Trump’s post comes after Republican Senator Tom Cotton on Wednesday wrote to Intel’s board of directors asking about Tan’s alleged ties to China and his investments in the country, and raised concerns about his time leading Cadence Design Systems, which had a Chinese military university as a customer.
Tan, who took over the helm in March, has been focusing on improving efficiency at the chipmaker, which has lost ground to companies like Nvidia and AMD in the AI chip race. Tan has since laid off thousands of staff, spiked plans for new manufacturing plants, and is trying to sell non-core subsidiaries as he tries to return the company to being an engineering-first venture.
Notably, Intel was a major part of the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act, promised almost $8 billion to set up manufacturing and packaging projects in facilities across Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon.
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Note: This story was updated to add Intel’s statement on the matter.
