{"id":14450,"date":"2025-08-19T21:43:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T21:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/softbank-puts-2b-into-intel-as-u-s-considers-10-ownership-stake\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T21:43:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T21:43:22","slug":"softbank-puts-2b-into-intel-as-u-s-considers-10-ownership-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/19\/softbank-puts-2b-into-intel-as-u-s-considers-10-ownership-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank Puts $2B Into Intel as U.S. Considers 10% Ownership Stake"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Earlier this month, President Donald Trump publicly called on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign. Photo by Andrej Sokolow\/picture alliance via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In its latest push into A.I. and semiconductors, SoftBank<\/a> yesterday (Aug. 18) announced a $2 billion investment in Intel<\/a>. The Masayoshi Son<\/a>-led conglomerate purchased shares at a slight discount\u2014$23 each\u2014giving it about a 2 percent stake in the struggling U.S. chipmaker.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation,\u201d said Son in a statement. \u201cThis strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the U.S., with Intel playing a critical role.\u201d<\/p>\n

SoftBank, long known for its bold bets, has been particularly aggressive in A.I. It has backed A.I. startups like Perplexity AI<\/a> and OpenAI<\/a>, leading a $40 billion funding round for the latter that valued the ChatGPT maker at $300 billion earlier this year.\u00a0In January, SoftBank also joined OpenAI, Oracle<\/a>, and others in launching Stargate, a $500 billion initiative<\/a> aimed at boosting domestic A.I. development over the next four years.<\/p>\n

On the semiconductor front, SoftBank is the majority owner of chip designer Arm<\/a> and last year acquired Graphcore to position it as a Nvidia<\/a> rival.The company previously held around 5 percent of Nvidia but sold its stake in 2019, just before the A.I. boom sent the chipmaker\u2019s value soaring. SoftBank has since rebuilt its Nvidia holdings to around $3 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While surging demand for A.I. chips has made Nvidia the world\u2019s most valuable publicly listed company, Intel has struggled to capitalize on the boom. Once a leader in semiconductor manufacturing, the Santa Clara, Calif-based company has fallen behind rivals in areas like GPUs. After SoftBank revealed its investment, its own shares dropped more than 7 percent today, while Intel shares jumped 7 percent on the news.<\/p>\n

The U.S. eyes a stake in Intel<\/h3>\n

Another force bolstering Intel\u2019s share price today is reports that the U.S. government is considering a 10 percent stake in the company. The government is considering converting funds that Intel was supposed to get under the Biden-era Chips and Science Act<\/a> into an equity stake, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick<\/a> told CNBC today.<\/p>\n

The move would add a new twist to the tumultuous relationship between Washington and the semiconductor industry. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump<\/a> publicly called on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan<\/a> to resign, citing alleged conflicts of interest\u2014a demand he walked back<\/a> after meeting Tan at the White House last week. In August, the administration also announced that Nvidia and AMD<\/a> could resume exporting chips to China, but only if they pay the U.S. 15 percent of revenue from those sales.<\/p>\n

Tan, who took over as Intel\u2019s chief executive in March<\/a>, is focused on catching up with competitors by emphasizing engineering, cutting costs and laying off about 25,000 employees throughout 2025. A veteran of the semiconductor industry, Tan has close ties to Son, having previously served on SoftBank\u2019s board until 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are pleased to deepen our relationship with SoftBank, a company that\u2019s at the forefront of so many areas of emerging technology and innovation and shares our commitment to advancing U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership,\u201d said Tan in a statement. \u201cMasa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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