US to get 10% stake in Intel: Trump

ISTANBUL

The US will take a 10% stake in Intel, President Donald Trump announced Friday.

Speaking at a White House news conference, he said the semiconductor producer was the world's largest and most powerful chip company until it began to leave and relocate to other countries, particularly Taiwan.

Citing his meeting with CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier this month, he said Intel can go to Taiwan, but the US will impose a 100% tariff, or a 200%, 300%, or 500% tariff. "Anybody that sells into the US has to pay," he said.

On Aug. 12, Trump and Tan met at the White House after the US president demanded Tan "immediately" resign for alleged ties to Chinese companies with military connections.

Trump praised Tan's "success and rise" as "an amazing story" following the meeting, calling it "a very interesting one."

On Friday, he said about Tan: "That's right, he should resign. And he came in, he saw me, (and) we talked for a while. I liked him a lot. I thought he was very good.

"I thought he was somewhat a victim. But, you know, nobody's a total victim."

Trump said he offered to take 10% of Intel, and Tan responded: "I would consider that. I said, Well, I'd like you to do that, because Intel has been left behind."

Trump claimed that Intel would be a "giant" right now, but the company had "bad management" over the years, and "they got lost."

"I think he should pay us 10% of your company. And they said, 'Yes,' that's about $10 billion. I don't get it.

"This comes to the US of America,” he said. “It's a great deal for them, and I think it's a great deal. He walked in wanting to keep his job, and he ended up giving us $10 billion to the US."

"And we do a lot of deals like that. I'll do more of them," he added.

SoftBank in Japan also purchased $2 billion worth of Intel stock this week.

Intel's share price rose 6.3% as of 1830GMT after Trump's announcement