The White House is applying strong pressure on Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) in order to support Intel Corporation (INTC.US), using all means possible.

The Trump administration has been deeply involved in the operations and customer expansion of Intel Corporation over the past year, pressuring tech giants such as Apple Inc. and NVIDIA Corporation to facilitate a series of major collaborations for Intel Corporation. According to The Wall Street Journal on July 10th, this is one of the most direct cases of U.S. government intervention in private tech companies in recent years. Since CEO Lip Bu Tan took office in March 2025, the stock price of Intel Corporation has risen more than fourfold. The company's business has shown significant improvement, but challenges remain - over the past four quarters, Intel Corporation's foundry business has accumulated operating losses of $10.4 billion. Tariff negotiations as a "bargaining chip," Apple Inc. pushed towards Intel Corporation Apple Inc. CEO Cook visited Washington last summer with the goal of persuading the Trump administration to abandon plans to impose 100% tariffs on all semiconductor imports. If these tariffs were implemented, it would directly increase the cost of Apple Inc.'s core products. Apple Inc. eventually obtained an exemption, with the condition of committing to invest billions of dollars more in the U.S. However, according to The Wall Street Journal, government officials revealed that during talks with Cook, Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also made another request: they hoped Apple Inc. would use Intel Corporation's foundry to produce some chips. Subsequently, Trump announced on Truth Social that Apple Inc. would start using chips manufactured by Intel Corporation. He wrote, "I have decided to help Intel Corporation because we need to design and manufacture our chips domestically in the U.S." According to a source, Apple Inc. plans to have Intel Corporation produce chips for both Mac laptops and iPhones. Reports indicate that the connection between tariff negotiations and the potential cooperation between Apple Inc. and Intel Corporation had not been previously reported. Government investment leads to deals with NVIDIA Corporation, SpaceX following suit While negotiations with Apple Inc. progressed, the U.S. government took more direct action - converting a $9 billion federal subsidy into a 10% stake in Intel Corporation, making it the largest shareholder. This move had a demonstrative effect. In September last year, NVIDIA Corporation announced a $5 billion investment in Intel Corporation and the acquisition of its custom data center chips. NVIDIA Corporation CEO Huang Renxun described this as a "historic" collaboration. In April this year, SpaceX under Musk announced that Intel Corporation would join its "Terafab" manufacturing program to assist in "the large-scale design, manufacturing, and packaging of high-performance chips." In August last year, Japan's SoftBank injected $2 billion into Intel Corporation. These injections of funds are significant. Intel Corporation executives stated that without the immediate capital infusion from the government's stake conversion, along with investments from NVIDIA Corporation and SoftBank, the company would have had to significantly cut capital expenditures over the past year. Commerce Department deeply involved, monitoring progress of foundry business Government involvement extends beyond facilitating deals to daily operational matters. Reports indicate that Lip Bu Tan visits Washington about once a month to meet with Commerce Department officials, and regularly speaks with Commerce Secretary Lutnick to report on customer relations and business progress. Commerce Department "chip czar" and veteran semiconductor investment banker Bill Frauenhofer is more deeply involved - he receives quarterly reports from Intel Corporation CFO David Zinsner and his team members regularly meet with Intel Corporation executives in Washington and at their headquarters in Santa Clara, California to track progress on new manufacturing technologies. Commerce Department officials have explicitly stated that they hope to keep more chip manufacturing in the U.S., rather than in China, Taiwan, South Korea, or Japan. They are particularly focused on Intel Corporation's foundry business and are pushing for Intel Corporation to expand the advanced packaging capacity of its New Mexico factory. Both Intel Corporation and the government view advanced packaging as the best entry point for Intel Corporation to compete with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Intel Corporation CFO Zinsner stated in the January earnings call that the foundry business is expected to generate billions of dollars in revenue from advanced packaging in the near term, "which is even more exciting than I anticipated." Lip Bu Tan's internal reforms: cutting costs, restructuring, recruiting from competitors In addition to government support, Lip Bu Tan himself is driving significant internal changes. In September, Lip Bu Tan restructured Intel Corporation's reporting structure, creating a new "Central Engineering Group" and recruiting top chip engineer Srinivasan Iyengar from Cadence to integrate custom chip design into a unified team. He also recruited executives from competitors such as Samsung and SK Hynix on a large scale, and entrusted engineer Naga Chandrasekaran with more responsibilities - the latter has a strong background in semiconductor technology and has become the most important sales executive for the foundry business. In terms of capital expenditure strategy, Lip Bu Tan shifted the focus of investments from building new fabs to acquiring precision manufacturing equipment to increase the capacity of popular products such as laptops and data center CPUs. The initial results are showing. In April this year, Intel Corporation reported a 22% year-over-year revenue increase in data center business, reaching $5.1 billion, and Alphabet Inc. Class C Cloud announced a large purchase of Intel Corporation Xeon CPUs for AI workloads. Mark Lohmeyer, VP of AI and Computing Infrastructure at Alphabet Inc. Class C Cloud, said, "When they listen to our feedback and take action, it makes us more excited to work with them." However, Intel Corporation still recorded a net loss of $3.7 billion for the quarter. How far can the government's "endorsement" take them? This government-led industrial support is not without its critics. Trade and industry policy lawyer Scott Lincicome, from the Cato Institute, warned that the White House's strong intervention in companies' transaction decisions, such as Apple Inc. and NVIDIA Corporation, could set a bad precedent, "especially if Intel Corporation fails to repair its foundry business." He bluntly stated, "Being a government favorite only works if you perform well. For Lip Bu Tan, the risk is that once things start to go downhill, politicians have a very short time frame." Jacob Feldgoise, senior research analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, holds a more optimistic view: "From a technological perspective, Intel Corporation seems to be gaining more and more credibility and confidence. Every new customer commitment, every new manufacturing process release, the signals are getting better and better." Whether Intel Corporation can translate government support into long-term competitiveness remains the biggest suspense in the market. This article is adapted from Wall Street View, GMTEight Editor: LiFo.