Greetings readers! Welcome to our special report on breaking news in technology and politics. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan addressed President Donald Trump calls for his resignation and made clear he categorically dismissed reports around his career as “misinformation.” The timing is of note given Tan’s extensive connections to Chinese corporations and that Intel is a significant receiver of government funding from the United States of America.

The controversy began early on Thursday as President Donald Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, that, “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED must resign, immediately,” (There was “no other solution to the problem”).

The call for resignation by the public followed a letter from Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican leader who supports Trump initiatives in the Senate. The public outrage began after Cotton's letter a day before challenged Tan's connections to China, considering Intel had received an enormous grant of nearly $8 billion grant to the CHIPS Act, which aims to increase US domestic semiconductor manufacturing, enhancing national security and economic competitiveness. Cotton said, "Intel has a responsibility to the American taxpayer to be a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars, and to follow all applicable security standards" insinuating Tan's relationships raise questions about whether Intel can uphold that responsibility.

In response to these public allegations, Lip-Bu Tan sent a letter to Intel staff. Tan, who became Intel's CEO in March 2025, stated that the articles about his prior roles are "misinformation". Tan stated his belief, "Over 40+ years in the industry, I have built relationships that span the world and our difference ecosystem and I have always operated at the highest legal and ethical standards". Tan also assured employees that the company is engaged with the Trump Administration actively.

Intel itself also released a statement after Trump comments, reiterating its commitment to "advancing US national and economic security interests" and making investment that are "in line with the President's America First agenda" in particular domestic semiconductor manufacturing. The statement closed by saying, "We look forward to continuing our engagement with the Administration".

The allegations of "conflicts" involving Lip-Bu Tan have drawn a spotlight primarily from his venture capitalist background. Tan was a founding managing partner of the venture capital firm Walden International, founded in 1987, prior to becoming CEO of Intel. In April, a Reuters article described Tan's vast investments in Chinese companies via Walden International. The article described Walden as invested in "20 funds and companies alongside Chinese government funds or state owned enterprises, including several advanced manufacturing and chip firms, some reportedly tied to the Chinese military".

Tan has also served on the boards and held various executive positions at 14 companies in the semiconductor industry. He was the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, a chip design software company. Cadence recently agreed to plead guilty and to pay more than $140 million in criminal penalties to resolve United States government charges based on sales of products to a Chinese military university alleged to be using the products to stimulate nuclear explosions, during Tan's time as CEO.

In commentary, Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon indicated, "Lip-Bu is an icon in the semi industry, and relationship ties with so many companies, both in and out of China, are well acknowledged". Rasgon went on to say, "We don’t think Lip-Bu is 'conflicted' but with the nature of this administration [Lip-Bu Tan] China ties ... are seemingly making for a fairly bad look". Rasgon also suggested Tan some form of good personal relationship with Trump that could potentially mitigate the former president strong criticism.

Pat Gelsinger term as CEO of Intel was characterized by multiple issues, falling stock prices, and a competitor in a different class in the AI chip market. Tan was appointed at a time when investors previously reacted positively to Gelsinger appointment. After Tan was appointed, Intel stock price boosted and was up as much as 15%, but it has tailed off since. Wall Street Analysts and many current and former executives and employees of Intel were positive about Tan being able to salvage the troubled company. After Trump post about Tan's appointment, Intel stock price dropped back over 3% on Thursday but then recovered on Friday.

Intel has many hurdles to overcome despite the initial positive market reaction to Tan's appointment as CEO. The share price of Intel is only up 1.8% in 2024 which is actually well behind other chip stocks like AMD, Broadcom and Nvidia of which, Nvidia is the market leader in chips for AI and saw its share price up 156.5% alone in the first six months of 2024, driven by demand for AI chips.

In late July, Intel stock price dropped again after the company announced it would be shedding 15 percent of its workforce to save costs. The layoffs are indicative of the company's continuing battle to revive its faltering chip production business. Intel designs its own chips and its been trying to ramp up by becoming a third party processor manufacturer, but that goal seems ever elusive. The company also recently indicated in its latest earnings report that it was abandoning its plans to provide its latest manufacturing process technology called 18A to its customers. Analysts regarded this as a crucial step in Intel's turnaround and to catch up to competing chip processor maker TSMC.

As if those issues weren't enough, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday that Tan has had disputes with several board members and has differed with the Chairman Frank Yeary whether the company should abandon its manufacturing altogether. In a letter to staff, Tan said: "The Board is fully supportive of the work we are doing to transform our company, innovate for our customers, and execute with rigor and we are making progress".