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Investing.com -- Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has sharply criticized the Trump administration’s decision to invest nearly $9 billion of taxpayer funds into Intel, calling the move a “risky investment” with no safeguards for the public.
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Warren argued that President Donald Trump’s conversion of CHIPS Act grants into an equity stake has left taxpayers exposed while excusing Intel from prior commitments.
“Intel is a failing company,” Warren wrote, citing the chipmaker’s 60% stock price decline last year and years of underinvestment in long-term competitiveness.
She warned that the government’s new 10% ownership stake, announced after Trump met Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in August, absolves Intel of obligations to expand domestic chipmaking capacity and build new U.S. fabrication plants.
Warren contrasted the deal with the Biden administration’s earlier CHIPS Act grant to Intel, which required strict conditions including limits on stock buybacks, union cooperation, affordable childcare commitments, and profit-sharing provisions.
Those guardrails, she said, were discarded when Trump restructured the arrangement into equity.
Although the government is now Intel’s largest shareholder, Warren noted that it has no independent board representation or voting rights.
According to Intel’s own SEC filing, the government must vote in line with the company’s board, which Warren argued “empowers and emboldens” directors rather than holding them accountable.
Warren further criticized Trump’s claim that the government acquired $11 billion worth of Intel shares “for zero,” pointing to SEC disclosures that show billions in public money were transferred without enforceable commitments.
She called the deal a gift to corporate executives, allowing Intel to potentially offshore jobs and resume buybacks without consequence.
The Massachusetts senator has long supported the idea of government equity stakes in strategic industries but insisted they must be structured to protect workers and taxpayers.
“Equity investments can be an important tool in reshoring America’s supply chains,” she wrote, “but these stakes must be managed in a transparent and strategic fashion, not the chaotic, special-interest-favoring approach taken by the President.”
Warren pressed the Commerce Department for answers on the deal’s legal basis, remaining conditions, and taxpayer protections by September 17.
She warned that Trump has signaled more interventions of this type, making it urgent that safeguards are imposed.