The US government is poised to take a 10% equity stake in Intel.
The news follows yesterday’s announcement that Softbank Group will invest a further $2-billion in the US chip-maker.
Now, according to news reports, US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has confirmed the discussions are underway for the US government to convert Chips and Science Act grants made to Intel into equity.
The equity deal would not give the government voting or governance rights, but is being cast as giving US taxpayers a return on their investment in semiconductor companies.
Last week, the US government granted licences for Nvidia and AMD to sell high-level AI chips to China in return for a 15% commission payment.