President Donald Trump this morning called for the immediate resignation of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, alleging he has conflicts of interest. This latest setback for the struggling computer chip company couldn’t have come at a worse time, as Intel is in the middle of attempting a comeback.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump’s post comes as Tan has been attempting to stage a turnaround at Intel after the company initially missed out on the early wave of the AI boom. Tan became CEO of the company this past March.
Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Gizmodo regarding Trump’s post.
Trump’s comments also come just a day after Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas sent a letter to Intel’s Board Chairman Frank Yeary, asking questions about Tan’s investments in Chinese chip companies and their alleged ties to China’s government and military.
He also raised specific concerns about Tan’s former role as CEO of Cadence Design Systems, a position he held for 13 years until 2021. In July, the company pleaded guilty to violating U.S. export controls by selling hardware and software to China’s National University of Defense Technology without obtaining the required licenses.
“Intel was awarded nearly $8 billion from the CHIPS and Science Act, the largest grant to a single company,” Cotton wrote in the letter. “Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations. Mr. Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”
In response to the letter, Intel told Reuters on Wednesday that both the company and Tan are “deeply committed to the national security of the United States,” and that they would address the issues in the letter with Cotton.
This isn’t the first time the Trump Administration has sought to influence business leaders and pick winners and losers in the corporate world. Since the start of his second term, Trump has used tariffs and trade policy as tools to push companies to invest more in the United States. CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have all met with Trump in efforts to advance their own business agendas.
Just last month, Tan had outlined his plan to reduce headcount and cut spending to make Intel more competitive with its rivals.
Tan told employees in a staff-wide memo that the company will cut its workforce by roughly 15% by the end of the year and scrapped plans for new factories in Germany and Poland.
“I know the past few months have not been easy. We are making hard but necessary decisions to streamline the organization, drive greater efficiency and increase accountability at every level of the company,” Tan wrote in the memo.
As far as its AI ambitions, Tan said the company needs to develop a cohesive stack strategy—not just chips, but also the software and systems to support them.
“Our starting point will be emerging AI workloads – then we will work backward to design software, systems and silicon that enable the best customer outcomes,” Tan wrote.
Now, with the President against him, Tan’s plans of getting Intel back on track have just become a lot harder.
