Trump’s Investment in Intel Is Paying Off

Trump administration Invest in Intel The payoff appears to be paying off, but the once-mighty chipmaker has a long way to go to return to industry dominance.

In August, the US government announced that it was converting nearly $9 billion in federal grants that Intel had issued during the Biden administration to roughly 10 percent equity share During its third-quarter earnings Thursday — its first financial update since President Trump’s surprise investment in the company — Intel said it generated $13.7 billion in revenue over the past three months, a 3 percent year-over-year increase. This is the fourth quarter in a row that Intel has missed revenue guidance.

Intel’s stock price has risen more than 90 percent since it struck a deal with Trump over the summer. At the time, the company’s shares were trading at around $20. On the heels of its earnings report today, its stock price rose to $38.16.

The White House announced it was investing in Intel just weeks after Trump publicly called for CEO Lip-Boo Tan to step down over his alleged troubled relationship with China. The president changed his position just days later, however, after what he described as a positive meeting with Tan.

On the earnings call, Tan said he was “respected by the trust and confidence that Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have.” He added that Intel is “fully committed to the Trump administration’s vision and proudly welcomes the United States as an essential partner in our efforts.”

Intel’s stronger-than-expected earnings suggest global demand for x86 chips, the kind Intel specializes in, continues to grow as the tech industry invests heavily in AI infrastructure. While GPUs such as Nvidia’s H100s continue to be the gold standard for training AI models, data center builds feature a combination of GPUs and x86 CPUs, powering a variety of AI workloads.

Intel noted in the earnings call that it has not been able to supply enough older chips to its device customers, which are not as advanced as the new generation of AI semiconductors. That’s partly because consumer demand for AI-powered PCs isn’t particularly strong, so device makers are still looking for older—and cheaper—chips.

Intel also reported net income of $4.1 billion. A year ago, the company said it lost more than $16 billion. Under Tan’s leadership, Intel aggressively tried to cut costs, including laying off 15 percent of its workforce.

The past few months have been busy for Intel. In addition to the Trump administration, GPU giant Nvidia And multinational tech conglomerate SoftBank also sent money to the company in exchange for common stock. In the most recent quarter, Intel received $5.7 billion from the US government, $5 billion from Nvidia and $2 billion from SoftBank. It raised an additional $5.2 billion by selling stakes in chipmaker Altera and autonomous driving company Mobileye.