Intel processor and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken August 19, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

By Andrea Shalal and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government wants an equity stake in Intel in exchange for cash grants approved during the administration of former President Joe Biden, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday.

Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that any U.S. investment in Intel would be aimed at helping the troubled chipmaker stabilize.

Asked about reports that the U.S. was considering taking a 10% stake in the company, Bessent told CNBC's "Squawk Box" program: "The stake would be a conversion of the grants and maybe increase the investment into Intel to help stabilize the company for chip production here."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Tuesday that Lutnick was working on a deal with Intel to take a 10% government stake. "The president wants to put America's needs first, both from a national security and economic perspective, and it's a creative idea that has never been done before," she told reporters.

Lutnick, also speaking on CNBC, took it one step further, saying the United States wants a return on its "investment".

"We should get an equity stake for our money," Lutnick said. "We'll get equity in return for that ... instead of just giving grants away."

The government does not want control of the company, he added.

Bessent gave no details about the size or timing of such a deal but said that any investment would not be aimed at forcing U.S. companies to buy chips from Intel.

Bloomberg News reported on Monday that the U.S. government is in talks to take a 10% Intel stake in exchange for $7.9 billion in grants that were approved for the U.S. chip company during the Biden administration.

Congress did not require companies to offer equity when it created the cash grants as part of the $52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act in 2022 and it is unclear how companies could be required to offer shares for grants.

President Donald Trump has previously said he wanted to kill the program.

"It's not governance, we are just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity for the Trump administration for the American people," Lutnick said.

NON-VOTING STAKE

He suggested any stake would be non-voting, meaning it would not enable the U.S. government to tell the company how to run its business.

He made his comments a day after SoftBank Group agreed to invest $2 billion in the chipmaker, which has struggled to compete after years of management blunders.

"The Biden administration literally was giving Intel money for free and giving TSMC money for free, and all these companies just giving the money for free, and Donald Trump turned it into saying, 'Hey, we want equity for the money. If we're going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action for the American taxpayer'," Lutnick said.

Lutnick added that, though not necessary, it would be "a really good thing" to have an American participant in the semiconductor sector.

Intel and TSMC, a Taiwan-based chipmaker, declined to comment.

Intel has struggled financially in recent months and recorded an annual loss of $18.8 billion in 2024, its first such loss since 1986.

The Trump administration has been making a series of moves involving U.S. companies, including proposing to allow Nvidia to sell its H20 chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving 15% of the company's sales of some advanced chips to Chinese businesses and offering a similar deal with Nvidia's smaller rival AMD.

MP Materials said last month that the U.S. Defense Department will become its largest shareholder as part of a multibillion-dollar deal with the U.S. government to boost output of rare earth magnets.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David ShepardsonAdditional reporting by Katharine JacksonEditing by Andrew Heavens, Andrea Ricci, Rod Nickel and David Goodman)