Trump claims Intel would dominate chip market if he were president

Donald Trump stated that if he had been president, Intel would have captured all of the chip business, and “there would be no Taiwan.”

The US government has committed $8.9 billion for an approximately 10% equity stake in Intel. The agreement also includes a five-year warrant priced at $20 per share, which would give the government an additional 5% stake in Intel if exercised.

This investment dovetails with Intel’s expected $10 billion in CHIPS Act grants earmarked for building and upgrading US manufacturing facilities. The CHIPS and Science Act, signed into law in 2022, was designed specifically to reduce American dependence on foreign chip fabrication, particularly from Taiwan’s TSMC.

Intel itself has outlined plans to invest over $100 billion in manufacturing and research and development under its “IDM 2.0” strategy. IDM stands for Integrated Device Manufacturing, which is Intel’s blueprint for making chips in-house rather than outsourcing fabrication to companies like TSMC or Samsung.

TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, fabricates the vast majority of the world’s most advanced chips. US reliance on TSMC for advanced chips remains significant despite the billions flowing into domestic investments. Building a semiconductor fabrication plant takes years and tens of billions of dollars.

TSMC has agreed to build fabs in Arizona, but those projects have faced delays and cost overruns. The first Arizona fab is expected to produce chips using older process technology compared to what TSMC runs in Taiwan. The second fab is still years from completion.

Advanced chips are the backbone of Bitcoin mining operations, where processing power directly translates to profitability. Any meaningful shift in where and how chips are manufactured affects the cost and availability of mining hardware.

Washington now has a financial interest in Intel’s stock price performing well, which could influence future policy decisions around subsidies, tariffs, and trade restrictions. The broader competitive landscape includes TSMC leading in advanced fabrication, Samsung investing heavily in its own foundry business, and China spending aggressively to build domestic chip capacity despite US export controls.