From Tom's Hardware: U.S Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed in an interview that the White House is in talks with Intel to acquire a 10% stake in the company. Lutnick confirmed this in a live interview with CNBC, saying that the government wants the grants given to the company under the CHIPS Act to be converted into equity. Secretary Lutnick also reiterated that the U.S. must manufacture its own chips domestically.
“America should get the benefit of the bargain; that is exactly Donald Trump’s perspective, which is, ‘Why are we giving a company worth $100 billion this kind of money? What are (sic) in it for the American taxpayer?’ And the answer Donald Trump has is, ‘We should get an equity stake for our money,’” Lutnick said. “So, we’ll deliver the money, which was already committed under the Biden Administration. We’ll get equity in return for it; get a good return for the American taxpayer, instead of just giving grants away. Donald Trump views [that] we should get benefits for the economics that we put out.”
Lutnick also highlighted the perceived security risks of relying on foreign chip production. "For national security, we must manufacture our own chips domestically," he said in the interview. "We cannot rely on Taiwan, which is 9,500 miles from the United States and only 80 miles from China. 99% of leading-edge chips should not be made in Taiwan. This is why we negotiated with South Korea and Japan to expand our chip manufacturing capacity at home."
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