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Why has Donald Trump asked Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign ‘immediately’?
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan was appointed to the post in March 2025 after having served in Walden International for over 41 years.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday asked “highly conflicted” Intel Corp. chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan to “resign immediately”, creating challenges for the company which is seen as a critical piece of Washington’s efforts to rebuild the domestic semiconductor industry that Taiwan currently dominates.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan was appointed to the post in March 2025 after having served in Walden International for over 41 years, according to his LinkedIn account. Lip-Bu Tan left Walden as the chairman.
Why has Trump asked Intel CEO to resign?
The Donald Trump-led administration is reportedly probing Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan’s ties to China. This week, Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked the chairman Lip-Bu Tan about his links with China, including investments in the country’s semiconductor companies and others with connections to the country’s military, according to a Bloomberg report.
Trump on Thursday said in a post on Truth Social, “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately”.
“There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday, without providing any details.
In a letter to Frank Yeary, who oversees the chipmaker’s board of directors, Senator Tom Cotton asked about investments Tan made in China before he was picked to run Intel, Bloomberg reported.
Among concerns Tom Cotton pointed out was Tan’s ties to a tech company called Cadence Design Systems Inc., that the Intel CEO led for over a decade which sold products to a Chinese military university.
The company pleaded guilty in July to violating US export controls by selling hardware and software to China’s National University of Defense Technology.
“Intel and Mr. Tan are deeply committed to the national security of the United States and the integrity of our role in the U.S. defense ecosystem,” the report company's statement on Wednesday.
Intel said it would address the matters in the letter with the senator.
Post Donald Trump's statement, Intel shares fell 3.4 per cent in premarket trading before markets opened in New York.
Reuters reported in April this year that Tan - himself or through venture funds he has founded or operates - invested in hundreds of Chinese companies, some of which are linked to the Chinese military.
