It sounds like President Trump no longer thinks Intel’s CEO should resign. Trump has revealed on Truth Social that he met with Lip-Bu Tan, Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, and Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of the Treasury. He didn’t discuss the details of their meeting, but he described it as “a very interesting one.” Trump added: “His success and rise is an amazing story.” If you’ll recall, Trump alleged that Tan was “highly conflicted” due to his investments in hundreds of Chinese firms and should resign. Reuters had previously reported that some of those companies had links to the Chinese military. “Mr. Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week,” Trump said in his post.
According to a report by the Financial Times, Tan wrote a letter to Intel employees about the issue, telling that there had been a lot of misinformation about the roles he’d held. “I wanted to be absolutely clear… I have always operated within the highest legal and ethical standards,” he reportedly wrote in the letter. He also said that Intel was communicating with the White House “to address the matters that have been raised and ensure they have the facts.”
Trump’s call for Tan to resign reportedly came about due a letter from Tom Cotton, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to the Intel CEO. Cotton apparently expressed concerns aout the “security and integrity of Intel’s operations” due to Tan’s ties with China. Tan was named the CEO of Intel in March, taking over a company that was losing money due to its foundry business being unable to secure big customers and lagging behind rivals like Taiwan Semiconductor. Since taking over, Tan has enforced several cost-cutting measures, including cutting jobs with the goal of reducing its workforce by 22 percent by the end of the year. He also recently told investors that Intel could abandon the development of its next-gen manufacturing technology if it fails to secure a large client.