Overview

• SoftBank agreed to purchase about $2 billion of Intel shares at $23 apiece, slightly below Monday’s closing price, according to both companies.
• Intel shares gained more than 5% in after-hours trading after the announcement, following a roughly 3.6–4% drop during the session on reports of a possible U.S. stake.
• Bloomberg and the New York Times report that the Trump administration is weighing converting Chips Act support into equity for a roughly 10% holding in Intel, which would make the U.S. the largest shareholder.
• White House spokesperson Kush Desai said no agreement is official and indicated that converting Chips Act aid into stakes is under consideration.
• Intel is slated to receive about $10.9–11 billion in Chips Act grants for commercial and military production as it struggles to catch up in AI chips, while SoftBank expands U.S. tech bets including its majority stake in Arm and involvement in OpenAI’s ‘Stargate’ data-center projects.