Intel CEO to visit White House on Monday, source says

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

(Reuters) -Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan was due to visit the White House on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump called for his removal last week, a source familiar with the matter said. 

Intel and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tan is expected to have an extensive conversation with Trump while looking to explain his personal and professional background, according to the Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, adding that he could propose ways Intel and the U.S. government could work together, the paper said.

Tan hopes to win Trump’s approval by showing his commitment to the U.S. and guaranteeing the importance of keeping Intel’s manufacturing capabilities as a national security issue, the Journal added. 

Last week, Trump demanded the immediate resignation of Tan, calling him “highly conflicted” due to his ties to Chinese firms and raising doubts about plans to turn around the struggling American chip icon.

It was a rare instance of a U.S. president publicly calling for a CEO’s ouster and sparked debate among investors.

Tan said he shared the president’s commitment to advancing U.S. national and economic security.

Reuters reported exclusively in April that Tan invested at least $200 million in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip firms, some of which were linked to the Chinese military.

Tan, a Malaysian-born Chinese American business executive, was also the CEO of Cadence Design from 2008 through December 2021, during which time the chip design software maker sold products to a Chinese military university believed to be involved in simulating nuclear explosions.

Last month, Cadence agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million to resolve the U.S. charges over the sales, which Reuters first reported.

(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Max Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Richard Chang)