From Trump's “bombardment” to White House shares: How can Intel (INTC.US) CEO Chen Liwu win back trust in 40 minutes?

Before dawn on Thursday, Intel (INTC.US) CEO Chen Liwu was suddenly slammed by US President Trump on social media and asked to resign immediately. The trigger was its extensive investment history in China.

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the crisis eventually evolved into a decisive White House meeting that lasted about 40 minutes, and unexpectedly secured billions of dollars in capital injections from the US government for Intel.

In the early morning of August 7, 2025, Trump bluntly pointed out Chen Liwu's “extremely conflicting positions.” Previously, the investor-born CEO was under scrutiny due to his deep connection with Chinese capital. However, in the face of pressure, Intel moved quickly to arrange a meeting. At the Oval Office, only Commerce Secretary Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Bezent were present.

Trump's core concern is: How can Chen Liwu reverse Intel's decline? Chen Liwu was ready for a long time. He abandoned the huge subsidies available under the Chip Act and instead accepted a more political plan: trading company shares in exchange for government funding. In the end, the US promised to invest 5.7 billion US dollars in exchange for nearly 10% of Intel's shares, becoming its largest single shareholder. The deal was called a “fair exchange” by Commerce Secretary Lutnick.

40 minutes at the White House

This White House game demonstrated Chen Liwu's core competency as a veteran venture capitalist. Before the meeting, he used his contacts and invited tech leaders such as Microsoft CEO Nadella and Nvidia CEO Hwang In-hoon to endorse them. During the talks, he cleverly tied his personal narrative to America's interests and successfully resolved the “pro-China” accusation.

Once the deal was announced, the results were immediate. Intel's stock price began to rise. Since Chen Liwu took office, it has accumulated an increase of about 80%, outperforming the market. More importantly, this “national team” capital injection gave Intel the aura of a “strategic cornerstone” and opened the door for it to win over other major customers.

Soon after, Intel announced that it had received an investment of 2 billion US dollars from SoftBank and reached a strategic cooperation of 5 billion US dollars with Nvidia, which is headed by old friend Huang Renxun. The latter called Chen Liwu a “long-term ally.” Trump even shared AI-generated images on social media showing off that government holdings had increased significantly due to Nvidia's investment.

The two-sided challenge of the “Fire Captain”

However, Chen Liwu's “Art of Deal” doesn't solve all of Intel's fundamental problems. On the one hand, he is making drastic reforms to the chip giant with 100,000 employees: laying off about 15% of employees (including a large number of managers), flattening the architecture, upgrading the technical backbone, and trying to reshape an “engineering and customer-centric” culture. He directly contacted major customers such as Amazon and Google to inquire about their needs, and consulted with industry leaders.

On the other hand, doubts have always existed. Some industry observers, and even Intel insiders, are concerned about whether this venture capitalist with around 600 Chinese investments and a wealth of over 500 million US dollars has the deep technical insight and focus needed to lead Intel back to its leading position in cutting-edge manufacturing.

Intel's mass production capacity and quality control on advanced manufacturing processes (such as 18A) are still the litmus test for whether it can win back customers. According to some sources, Nvidia has tested the Intel 18A process but is not advancing cooperation.

The light and shadow of a “strategic asset”

The US government's investment has undoubtedly cast a “strategic vote of confidence” for Intel. Intel's vice president revealed that Trump had a special banquet with tech giant CEOs to discuss AI. These companies are all potential Intel customers. Lobbyists say the deal is Intel's “lifeline”; otherwise, the company may have lost its CEO under pressure. However, the entry of the “national team” has also brought new challenges.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick is now more motivated to secure orders for Intel's manufacturing business, which has raised concerns about fair competition among other chip makers operating in the US.

A Commerce Department official said that US shareholding gave Intel a chance to succeed, but it did not give an undue advantage, nor was Intel “too important to fail.” The official further stated that Minister Lutnick communicated with all parties and did not prioritize Intel.

Despite Intel's strong momentum at the transactional level, its manufacturing division is still struggling to produce high-quality proprietary chips.

According to people familiar with the matter, Nvidia recently tested whether to use Intel's production process called 18A to make chips, but it has stopped advancing. Nvidia did not respond to requests for comment.

An Intel spokesperson said that the company's 18A process for manufacturing advanced chips is “progressing smoothly,” and that its next-generation process, 14A, continues to receive “strong interest”, and it is expected that the 14A will produce more powerful and efficient chips.

When Nvidia invested $5 billion in Intel in September, it did not promise to hand it over manufacturing. When announcing the deal with Huang Renxun, Chen Liwu told reporters: “Currently, we are focusing on cooperation.”