- calendar_today August 31, 2025
In a post on Truth Social Thursday, the former president wrote: “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.” Trump did not explain further what specific conflicts he believed Tan had.
The move comes less than a week after Republican Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel’s board chair, Frank Yeary, also voicing “concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations.” Cotton highlighted Tan’s “extensive business ties to the Chinese Communist Party” as a potential risk for Intel, America’s top advanced chipmaker.
The letter also details Tan’s history of investments in Chinese technology companies, and accuses him of “risking billions of American taxpayer dollars” by accepting the CEO position at Intel. “Mr. Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations,” Cotton wrote, referring to the subsidies the company is set to receive from the federal government.
Tan, who has been active in Silicon Valley for decades, has investments in the U.S. and abroad, including in China, and has been among the country’s top investors in Chinese technology companies, per Crunchbase. Tan’s San Francisco-based venture capital firm, LionTree, as well as a firm in Hong Kong, have funneled funds into Chinese tech startups.
Past investments include a stake in Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), China’s largest chipmaker, which he later sold.
Tan, who took over as Intel’s CEO in March, has also come under closer scrutiny for his previous role as chief executive of Cadence Design Systems. The company, also based in California, develops software for chip design.
Cadence said last week that it had violated U.S. export controls after selling its design tools to a Chinese university with links to the Chinese military. Cadence said in a statement that it will pay a fine of 5 million to settle the matter with the Department of Commerce.
Intel’s stock fell by 3 percent in pre-market trade in New York on Thursday after Trump’s comments. Intel and the White House both declined to comment on the matter.
Tan was appointed CEO of Intel after the company’s board of directors replaced his predecessor, Pat Gelsinger, in December. Gelsinger had held the role since 2021, but the company’s board of directors voted to remove him in December.
The company’s shares have been under pressure since then, despite Tan’s appointment in March. Intel has struggled to keep up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest chipmaker.
Intel is the only American-based advanced chipmaker, but it has not benefited as much from the boom in artificial intelligence chips as other firms. AI chipmaking is the latest front in the global semiconductor arms race.
Intel has received billions of dollars in subsidies and loans from the federal government to shore up its operations. This is part of a wider effort by Washington to subsidize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and wean U.S. industries off foreign chipmakers, especially those in Taiwan and South Korea.
With Intel far behind TSMC in advanced manufacturing, the onus is on Tan from day one. In July, he warned that the company may be forced to discontinue its next-generation manufacturing technology if a “significant external customer” for it was not found.
If Intel were to exit, that would leave TSMC with an effective monopoly in advanced chipmaking, a situation with wide-ranging implications not just for the semiconductor industry, but U.S. national security as well.
This has come at the same time as Tan’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs to restore profitability, which have been met with some investor approval, but also increased worries about Intel’s future.
Senator Cotton’s letter to Yeary last week also mentioned Tan’s leadership at Cadence, noting that “no other entity except for the Chinese Communist Party benefits from Mr. Tan’s position” as Intel CEO. “Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,” Cotton added. “Mr Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”
