- President Trump started meeting with Intel CEO LIP-BU TAN
- President recently called on the CEO’s immediate resignation
- Trump accused Tan for big “conflicts of interest” because of his investments in Chinese companies
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan is ready to meet with President Trump to discuss the former professional and personal history and explore ways in which the US government and Intel can work together, sources have told Wall Street Journal.
Tan has recently faced a series of attacks by President Trump that have demanded his resignation over alleged investments and referred to in Chinese companies.
Trump has accused Tan of being “very conflict” and demanded his “immediate resignation” in which he said there is “no other solution to this problem.”
Rocky History
Intel has steadily trimmed its global workforce in recent months, which has led to a reduction of 20% in employee numbers that have seen thousands of employees lose their jobs in US factories
Tan has also recently beaten heads with Intel board members towards Intel’s investment in the United States.
For example, the new CEO has reduced the pace of the construction of a new factory in Ohio to meet the perceived customer needs, which has caused problems with Republican Ohio senator Bernie Moreno.
Both job cuts and slowed the construction directly contradict President Trump’s desire to increase domestic investments from companies that have typically produced goods outside the United States.
In addition, TAN’s previous position as CEO of Cadence Design Systems seems to have fluffed a few feathers in the Trump administration because the company has recently handed over $ 140 million in sanctions after pleading guilty to illegally exporting chip design tools to limited Chinese military organizations.
Tan himself also has several investments in Chinese companies, including buying bets of $ 200 million in Chinese manufacturing and chip companies between 2012 and 2024 according to a Pakinomist report.
However, Tan has not only been on the board of directors of several companies involved in chip production, but founded a venture capital company named Walden International, which focused strongly on tech startups in the Asian market.
Tan’s holdings in Chinese companies could therefore simply be a smart investment based on decades of experience rather than the shady under-table, as Trump has claimed in his red scary tirades on the truth social.
Trump seems to be deaf for his own accusations of Tan’s “conflicts of interest”, where the president often uses his position to market his own goods from the Trump store, as well as launching the $ Trump Cryptocurrency, which the president controls 80% of the coin supply.
In a recent letter to the employees, Tan said the United States had been his home for more than 40 years and the company communicated with the White House to make sure the president has “facts.”
Trump has recently charged significant tariffs on countries that he perceives to have an unreasonable trade balance, causing the price of some goods to rise when the cost of imports is transferred to the consumer -a fact that many in the Trump administration and his Maga base struggle to express.
Trump’s persecution of an America First policy has drawn significant investments from many larger companies, including Nvidia, Intel and Apple, to build factories in the United States to produce goods domestic. However, there is a reason why these companies have historically produced their goods outside the United States. It’s cheaper.
Recent studies of the cost of an American-made iPhone, for example, have theorized that the price tag could increase by between 25-100%.
In an additional contradiction, Trump’s own branded handsets from Trump Mobile are probably not manufactured in the United States, where Eric Trump claims that “In the end, all phones can be built in the United States of America.”
