The American government has purchased 9.9% of Intel for $8.9 billion dollars via the CHIPS Act and the Secure Enclave programme, as per Engadget. The investment provides voting rights but no board seat, which apparently counts as "passive ownership."
President Donald Trump has commented on the deal with the following words, as per Financial Express:
"He walked in wanting to keep his job and he ended up giving us 10 billion dollars for the United States. So we picked up 10 billion."
The deal came after a meeting between President Trump and Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who is trying to get the next-generation chip, Panther Lake, into production. The government says similar investments are not planned in other companies, but has done business with NVIDIA and AMD regarding exports to China.
Huuuge deal. Huge