Intel drops after Trump says CEO is “conflicted,” should resign

Intel fell Thursday after President Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that CEO Lip-Bu Tan “is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately.”

The president’s comments come after Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas sent a letter to Intel’s board asking them about Tan’s ties to China and the country’s semiconductor industry.

Cotton’s letter focuses, in part, on Cadence Design Systems, the chip design company that Tan led prior to Intel, saying, “Last week, Cadence pleaded guilty to illegally selling its products to a Chinese military university and transferring its technology to an associated Chinese semiconductor company without obtaining licenses. These illegal activities occurred under Mr. Tan’s tenure.”

Cotton’s letter — and Trump’s attention — adds another wrinkle to the turnaround story for the once dominant US chipmaker, which has lost over $200 billion in market cap over the last five years amid the AI-related investment boom that has supercharged shares of companies like Nvidia and Broadcom.

The market responded favorably when Tan was tapped to take over as Intel CEO to lead that turnaround. That excitement was premised to a large degree on Tan’s performance as the CEO of Cadence Design.

But as Cotton’s letter and Trump’s demands suggest, Tan’s successful 16-year stint at Cadence, starting in 2009, occurred in a very different global environment. Today, connections within the technology value chain — which often sprawl between China, Taiwan, and the United States — are far more politically fraught, potentially making Tan’s previous experience a less helpful model for navigating Intel’s future.