President Donald Trump said Intel Corp.’s CEO has agreed to give the U.S. government $10 billion, roughly equivalent to 10% of the chipmaker’s market capitalization, in an extraordinary intervention of the federal government into a private tech company.
“I think you should pay us 10% of your company,” Trump said, recounting his conversation with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, at an event on Friday. “That’s about $10 billion.”
It wasn’t immediately clear from Trump’s comments if the United States was getting an equity stake in the company, as his administration had previously suggested. Trump referred to the arrangement as a “deal.”
“I said, I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,” Trump said. “He agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it.”
Intel did not immediately respond