Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan will give a speech on stage in Taipei, Taiwan on May 19, 2025.
Anne Wang | Reuters
President Donald Trump said he and his cabinet members met on Monday Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan asked the head of chipmaker to resign. Intel shares rose 2% in extended trading.
“I met with Lipbu Tang from Intel and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary, Scott Becent,” Trump wrote in a post about Truth Society. “The meeting was very interesting. His success and rise is a remarkable story. Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members will spend time together next week and bring us suggestions.
An Intel spokesman confirmed the meeting.
“Today, Tan honored meeting President Trump for an open and constructive discussion about Intel’s commitment to strengthening U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Tan has been Intel Director since 2022 and became CEO in March, replacing Pat Gelsinger. Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questioned Tan’s relationship with China. Cotton raised past criminal cases, including Cadence Design, where Tan was CEO, and asked if Intel would need to sell from chipmaker positions associated with the Communist Party of China, the People’s Liberation Army and other associations in China.
Trump’s latest message shows a severe change in tone last week. In a true social post on Thursday, the president wrote that Tan was “very conflicted and must resign immediately. There is no other solution to this issue.”
Intel said later that day that the company, directors and TAN are “deeply committed to promoting US and economic security interests.”
The Trump administration is taking a big hand in the business world, particularly the semiconductor market, as the US fights against China for its advantage in artificial intelligence. Over the weekend, NVIDIA agreed to pay the federal government a 15% reduction by receiving an export control license that would allow H20 chips to be sold again to Chinese and Chinese companies. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited Trump at the White House on Friday.
President Trump said Monday that he initially asked Nvidia to cut chipmaker sales by 20% to China, but that number fell to 15% after Huang negotiated with him.
“I said, ‘Listen, I want 20% if I’m going to approve this for you,” Trump said at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
Tan, 65, took over Intel after a struggling chipmaker failed to gain great traction in the AI market. nvidia Although dominant, they burn cash to build a casting business for chip manufacturing.
Tan was born in Malaysia and grew up in Singapore before moving to the US and earning a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said in late July that his first few months as CEO of Intel were not easy and had been cut to the layoffs and casting division.
Intel will cancel plans for German and Poland manufacturing sites, slowing down development in Ohio, he told employees.
“It takes time and requires patience to run the company,” Tan said during a July conference call with analysts. “There’s a lot to fix to help the company move forward.”
Intel shares have grown 3% as of the end of Monday this year. The S&P 500 is up 8.4%.
– CNBC’s Fred Invert contributed to this report.
Watch: President Trump calls for Intel CEO to resign
