Trump and Intel

President Trump’s victory could be bad for the Intel turnaround if the Chips Act is repealed.

Trump has said “that chip deal is so bad” saying tariffs could have been used instead as a way to boost domestic chip manufacturing while Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, hinted at repealing the Act.

It seems unlikely that Trump will repeal the Act because the argument for having a domestic US source for leading-edge chips is irrefutable.

Intel is the only US company capable of getting a leading-edge capability in place so the Americans have two courses of action:

Give Intel the full $19 billion of grants and loans awarded under the Chips Act before January’s transition to a Trump government;

 Or:

Persuade Trump that Intel needs to be supported, and they have a trump card in achieving that – the military.

Trump is a stalwart supporter of the US military and, if they ask him to maintain the support for Intel so weapons have a guaranteed domestic source of the best ICs, then Trump will very likely go along with it.