Trump Urges Intel’s CEO to Step Down, Calling Him ‘Conflicted’

President Donald Trump called on the chief executive officer of Intel Corp. to resign because of what he called conflicts of interest, adding to the challenges for a company that is supposed to anchor restoration of the US semiconductor industry.

“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday. “There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”

He gave no evidence or additional detail on exactly what potential conflicts of interest Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan might have.

The post came after Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked the chairman of Intel’s board this week to answer questions about Tan’s ties to China, including investments in the country’s semiconductor companies and others with connections to the country’s military.

In a letter to Frank Yeary, who oversees the chipmaker’s board of directors, Cotton asked about investments Tan made in China before he was picked to run Intel. Cotton also noted specific concerns about Tan’s ties to Cadence Design Systems Inc., a tech company he led for over a decade that sold products to a Chinese military university. The company pleaded guilty in July to violating US export controls by selling hardware and software to China’s National University of Defense Technology.

“Intel and Mr. Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the United States and the integrity of our role in the US defense ecosystem,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Intel said earlier it would address the matters in the letter with the senator, and didn’t respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.

Intel shares fell as much as 3.4% in New York on Thursday, erasing what had been a small gain in 2025.

Tan, 65, is an industry veteran in technology and venture capital who took the reins at Intel in March following the ouster of his predecessor. The company’s board tapped Tan to turn around the iconic chipmaker because it has fallen far behind rivals in recent years.

“This adds political fire to an already fragile turnaround,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Oscar Hernandez Tejada said. “Calls for his resignation introduce a layer of uncertainty that could complicate execution.”

The Santa Clara, California-based company for decades led the semiconductor market by producing ever-faster chips to power personal computers and servers, but it struggled when computing migrated to smartphones and artificial intelligence grew in importance.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. pioneered the practice of making high-end chips for customers like Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc., becoming the world’s biggest semiconductor producer, while Nvidia has led the way in the development of AI chips. Intel’s market valuation is now about $87 billion, compared with $4.4 trillion for Nvidia.

Pat Gelsinger, Tan’s predecessor at Intel, had laid out ambitious plans to compete with TSMC in the so-called foundry business. But he struggled to recruit new customers and the board grew frustrated with the slow progress.

The Malaysian-born Tan has vowed to spin off Intel assets that aren’t central to the chipmaker’s mission and create more compelling products. He has pushed a plan to slash jobs and delayed or canceled projects to reduce operating expenses.

Tan’s credentials include a strong track record in his previous role. During his 12 years as CEO of Cadence, which he joined in 2008 when the chip-design software company was struggling, the share price grew more than 3,000%.

“Unfortunately, unlike other tech CEOs, Lip-Bu does not appear to have cultivated the kind of personal relationship with Trump that would help to assuage his ire,” Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon said in a note to clients. It’s possible that Trump is unhappy with Tan lowering Intel’s capital spending and wavering on a push to make cutting-edge processors, he said. “Trump likes winners; we suspect he does not find the failure that has permeated Intel in recent years all that attractive.”

Intel has been a critical piece of Washington’s efforts to rebuild the domestic semiconductor industry.

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