Trump accuses the CEO of Intel of being `highly conflictual ”, asks for resignation while Tom Cotton highlights the report on porcelain links

“The CEO of Intel is very conflict and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem! ” Trump wrote Thursday morning.

Tan only took the bar in Intel in March 2025, and its appointment was initially greeted by investors, Intel shares increasing up to 15% after its start. Tan succeeded Pat Gelsinger, long considered a star CEO in chips and the semiconductor space, which would have been forced by the board of directors, which had become frustrated by the loss of the Intel market against Nvidia.

At the end of July, Tan sent a memo to the employees informing them of significant layoffs and other costs of cost reduction, and the shares were negotiated below their spring level at this stage. On Thursday, the shares fell up to 3% in the trade in the post of Market after the post of Trump.

Why Trump thinks that Tan could be “ conflict ”

The conflict focuses on the financial and professional links of TAN with Chinese companies, in particular those which have links with the Chinese military and technological sector. According to a Reuters survey in April, Tan – either directly or via its venture capital funds – has invested at least $ 200 million in at least 20 manufacturing companies and Chinese semiconductors between 2012 and 2024. The investigation identified several companies with links with the Chinese people’s liberation army.

These revelations have acquired a new emergency after Senator Cotton sent an open letter to the Board of Directors of Intel, also reported by Reuters, questioning Tan’s allegiances and if the company could trust nearly $ 8 billion in federal subsidies under the law on flea and sciences – designed to consolidate the manufacture of national chips essential to American security, finalized in the course of the administration of Biden.

The letter from Cotton demanded that Intel had forced Tan to give in to yielding any interest in Chinese technological societies or companies linked to the Chinese Communist Party and its armed forces. The senator referred not only to Tan’s investments, but also to his leadership of cadence design systems, a large flea design company. Less than two weeks before the issue of the Cotton letter, at the end of July, Cadence admitted to having violated the export rules by providing technology to a Chinese military university and agreed to pay a fine of $ 140 million accordingly.

In a declaration provided to FortuneIntel said that the company, the Board of Directors and the Tanking are “deeply determined to advance American national and economic interests and make significant investments aligned on the president’s first program in America”. Note that Intel has been manufacturing in America for 56 years, the company said it continued to invest billions of dollars in R&D and the manufacture of national semiconductors, including its new flea manufacturing plant in Arizona, which “greeted the most advanced manufacturing process technology in the country”. Intel said it was the only company to invest in the development of leading logical processes in the United States “we are impatiently awaiting our continuous commitment to the administration”.

Broader political context

Trump’s demand comes one day after having announced its intention to impose a 100% price for imported computer flea, part of its broader economic campaign against dependence on foreign technology, especially Chinese -, with the advance of American flea a key tension point. Trump’s comments also attach a new leadership drama for Intel, which has already traveled several CEOs and directors in recent years in the middle of fierce competition from Nvidia, AMD and Samsung.

Dust threatens to destabilize more intel at a critical moment. The company, which has once dominated the world flea market, fought to regain its competitive advantage in artificial intelligence processors and the advanced semiconductor manufacturing. A few days before Trump’s remarks, Intel said that he separated his networking division to rationalize his operations under the direction of Tan.

Intel has promised $ 100 billion for the manufacture and packaging of American fleas, with major projects in Arizona, Ohio, Oregon and New Mexico. The company has received nearly $ 8 billion in direct financing on fleas for these extensions. Companies including Micron Technology, Samsung and Apple have also promised large -scale investments in American manufacturing.

Several former members of the Board of Directors of Intel criticized the performance of the company in a comment for Fortune Earlier this week, arguing that “the advanced manufacturing of American semiconductors has been withered for some time”. The co -authors include Charlene Barshefsky, a former American trade representative, Reed Hundt, former president of the Federal Commission Commission, James Plummer, former engineering dean in Stanford, and David Yoffie, professor at the Harvard Business School. “The intel formerly leaders seems to abandon the race. The missed deadlines, the bad execution and an erroneous strategy to maintain the manufacturing within Intel while serving as a foundry for its competitors of infabricated fleas have resulted in a shortage of customers,” they wrote.

(This story has been updated with an Intel declaration, provided to Fortune.)

For this story, Fortune Used a generative AI to help an initial project. An editor checked the accuracy of the information before the publication.