INSIDE INTEL'S TRICKY DANCE WITH TRUMP

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

President Donald Trump told Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's chief executive, to step down five months into his tenure because of his past ties to the Chinese military. Tan eventually smoothed things over with Trump, but at a cost: in return for his support, the administration converted nearly $9 billion in grants promised to Intel as part of the 2022 Chips Act into a 10% equity stake in the company. The US government is now Intel's biggest shareholder. Tan still needs to resolve core business challenges to get Intel back on track. Without new commitments from customers, converting government grants to stock will only leave the company in a worse financial shape by diluting shareholders.