U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he and members of his cabinet had met with Intel CEO Chen Liwu. Days earlier, he had called for the chipmaker's chief to resign. Intel shares rose 2% in after-hours trading.
"I met with Mr. Chen Liwu of Intel, as well as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. "The meeting was very meaningful. His success and rise is an amazing story. Mr. Chen and members of my cabinet will continue to communicate and make recommendations to me next week. Thank you everyone for your attention!"
Intel has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Trump's latest remarks were in stark contrast to his tone last week. In a Truth Social post on Thursday, the president wrote that Chen Liwu "has a serious conflict of interest and must resign immediately. There is no other solution to this matter."
Intel responded later that day that the company, its directors and Chen Liwu were "firmly committed to advancing the national and economic security interests of the United States."
The Trump administration has taken a tough stance on business, especially in the semiconductor market. Over the weekend, Nvidia agreed to pay a 15% cut to the federal government in exchange for an export control license that would allow it to resume selling its H20 chips. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the White House on Friday to meet with Trump.
President Trump said on Monday that he initially asked Nvidia to take a 20% cut of sales, but that was reduced to 15% after negotiations with CEO Jensen Huang.
"I said, 'Listen, if I'm going to approve this for you, for the country, I want 20 percent,'" Trump said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
When Chen Liwu, 65, took over Intel, the troubled chipmaker failed to make significant progress in the artificial intelligence market dominated by Nvidia and was burning money to build its contract manufacturing business.
Chen Liwu was born in Malaysia and grew up in Singapore. He later moved to the United States and received a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said in late July that his first few months as Intel CEO had been difficult, with the company laying off employees and cutting back on investment in its foundry division. He told employees that Intel had canceled plans for manufacturing plants in Germany and Poland and would slow development in Ohio.
"It takes time and patience to turn the company around," Chen Liwu said on a conference call with analysts in July. "We have a lot of issues to solve to move the company forward."
Intel shares were up 3% this year as of Monday's close, while the S&P 500 had gained 8.4%.