When I woke up, the U.S. government officially became the largest shareholder of Intel with an investment of US$8.9 billion. Has Intel really become a U.S. state-owned enterprise? Obviously this is not the case... because after checking the information, we found that the US government's investment in Intel is far from as simple as it seems. Let me first explain it a little bit to those who don’t understand the cause and effect——


The protagonist of the story, Intel, cannot be said to have had a bad life in recent years, but can only be described as terrible.


Not only from 2014 to 2019, Intel's process technology has been 14nm+++ in the past five years; at the same time, competitors TSMC and Samsung are rapidly iterating advanced processes, from lagging behind Intel to gradually leading Intel.


Moreover, in order to keep Intel alive, former CEO Kissinger resorted to layoffs, selling off buildings, and cutting budgets.


Although the decline has been temporarily stabilized, Intel's market value has also dropped by almost 150 billion US dollars, directly losing the valuation of OpenAI (we have also written about the story of this buddy being a scapegoat in a previous article).

This has led to Intel's downhill path being too steep. Shares have fallen about 50% since the start of last year.

There is no harm without comparison. Ten years ago, 10 AMDs and 10 Nvidias together equaled one Intel. Now AMD’s market value is more than twice that of Intel, and Nvidia’s market value is almost 40 times that of Intel.

Data deadline: 2025.08.25


Another detail that can confirm Intel’s current situation is——

The last time the U.S. government directly purchased a stake in a company was during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

At that time, the U.S. government directly injected $49.5 billion into General Motors in exchange for a 60.8% stake in General Motors. The latter relied on this investment to survive the bankruptcy crisis.


But the strange thing is that it is the US government that has taken a stake, once again saving American manufacturing companies and extending Intel's life.

Not only did no one applaud this time, but it also caused foreign consulting agencies to explode and criticize the US government...

I checked, and you may not believe the reason why the outside world reacts so strongly and sensitively——

The $8.9 billion that the U.S. government spent to buy stocks was actually divided into two parts, but they should have been given directly to Intel for free.

The thing is, the U.S. government under Biden has also done something to support domestic manufacturing in the United States.

And long before Trump took office, he passed the CHIPS and Science Act, promising a total of $7.86 billion in direct funding to Intel.

The US$5.7 billion in money used by the Trump administration to purchase stocks this time came from grants approved but not yet paid to Intel under the American Chip and Science Act.


The remaining 3.2 billion was actually done by the Biden administration.

In September 2024, the Biden administration allocated an additional $3.2 billion to Intel, earmarked for a program called “Secure Enclave.” The purpose of this program is to supply semiconductor products to the Department of Defense.

So in essence, Trump is injecting the funding originally promised by the previous administration into the company as equity. Using the bills and budgets approved during the Biden period, he realized the investment during his term and helped the US government earn a net 10% of its shares.

Let me ask you what is a top manager.

Trump’s “empty-glove” strategy soon received “critical criticism” from all walks of life. Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics and trade affairs at the Cato Institute, believes that this will lead to Intel’s decision-making becoming increasingly driven by political rather than commercial considerations. This is a “bad decision” with almost no winners!


However, judging from the current situation, the real purpose of the US government is not so much to have a say in the company's operations, but to preserve Intel's foundry business.

Although the U.S. government will purchase 433.3 million primary shares of common stock at a price of US$20.47 per share, accounting for 9.9% of the shares, becoming the single largest shareholder.

But on the one hand these are newly issued shares, not existing shares purchased on the secondary market.

To put it bluntly, the U.S. government is investing in the company by subscribing for new shares, which will not have much impact on the rights and interests of existing shareholders.

Moreover, the U.S. government’s investment this time is a “passive investment,” which means that the U.S. government does not obtain board seats, voting rights or corporate governance rights. The role played is merely a financial investment.


The most important thing that best reflects the U.S. government’s “original intention” to support local manufacturing is that the U.S. government also signed a five-year stock warrant with Intel:

If Intel loses control of its manufacturing business within five years (less than 51% of its holdings), the U.S. government can purchase an additional 5% of Intel stock at a price of $20 per share.

How to understand this sentence?

Let’s simply compare the size and you will understand——

Intel's current public share price in the stock market is around US$23-26. As we just mentioned, the "package price" of the US government's large-scale purchase of stocks is US$20.47.


$20 means that if Intel becomes determined one day and wants to give up manufacturing, the U.S. government can hold an additional 5% stake in Intel at cabbage prices.

This completely reflects the investment logic of the Trump administration, so the truth of the matter is likely to be:

The government wants to help Intel get this technology giant out of the quagmire. After all, it is the only high-precision manufacturing plant in the United States. If Intel survives, it may be able to bring back local manufacturing.

And even if Intel still can't hold up the wall in the end, then the U.S. government will not lose anyway...

After understanding the ins and outs of the U.S. government’s stake in Intel, I can only say that Intel, a giant that once represented the United States’ high-end and sophisticated companies, is indeed in a miserable state now. I just don’t know if Trump’s investment can “make Intel great again.”