In response to President Trump's public demand for his resignation, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan referred to reports regarding his career as "misinformation."
He said the business was interacting with the Trump administration in a letter to employees.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, President Trump posted early on Thursday, "The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately."
After Pat Gelsinger's turbulent stint, which saw the company's stock plunge and the chipmaker lag behind in the AI race, Tan was appointed CEO of Intel back in March. Tan's hiring was welcomed by investors, as seen by the 15 percent increase in stock price following the announcement. Wall Street analysts, along with current and former executives and staff, believed Tan had the best chance of successfully reviving the struggling business.
After dropping more than three percent on Thursday due to Trump's post, Intel's shares increased on Friday. The company's commitment to "advancing US national and economic security interests" and to making investments "aligned with the President's America First agenda," including local semiconductor manufacturing, was emphasized in a statement released by Intel in response to Trump's remarks. The final words of the statement are, "We look forward to our continued engagement with the Administration".
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Tan has held executive positions and sat on boards at 14 semiconductor companies. Most notably, he was the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, a company that develops software for chip design.
Trump's statement was made a day after Republican Tom Cotton, one of his closest Senate friends, questioned Tan's ties to China in a letter to the head of Intel's board. Compared to rival chip companies like AMD (AMD), Broadcom (AVGO), and industry leader Nvidia (NVDA), Intel's shares have only increased 1.8 percent so far this year.
After Intel announced that it would reduce its personnel by 15 percent in an effort to reduce expenses as it tries to turn around its failing chip manufacturing division, the company's stock fell in late July.
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After Intel announced that it would reduce its personnel by 15 percent in an effort to reduce expenses as it tries to turn around its failing chip manufacturing division, the company's stock fell in late July. In addition to designing and producing chips for its own market, Intel has attempted in recent years to expand its manufacturing business by producing chips for outside clients. Efforts have not been successful thus far.