President Trump might not support Intel's US chip factories being operated by foreign entities

President Trump might not support US chip factories owned by Intel being operated by foreign entities like TSMC, according to White House officials.

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The new comments were a response to a Bloomberg report that TSMC would take a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of President Trump, with White House officials telling Reuters that the Trump administration supports foreign companies investing and building in the US, but it is "unlikely" to support a foreign company from operating Intel's factories.

Intel has been struggling for years, but there are multiple layers to this situation which analyst Patrick Moorhead beautifully breaks down in a post on X. He said that "having just manufacturing on US soil solves nothing for national security; the IP needs to be on US soil, too. If China attacks Taiwan, they have everything, and Arizona has nothing, and never gets beyond current node".

Moorhead added that a 51% TSMC-owned Intel Foundry with reports describing what he sees as a "landlord-tenant" relationship "makes sense, 51% means control. How does *this* make sense?" He continues: "Intel giving TSMC 18A is essentially giving away one of the elements of national security and goes against everything I thought the new administration wanted. I could see a TSMC minority investor, but to what end for TSMC? To skirt some tariffs? And TSMC IP inside Intel fabs? Uh... see comment on Intel IP in TSMC fabs".

• Read more: US government gives TSMC multiple alternatives for future in USA, tech transfer with Intel

The coming weeks and months ahead are going to be a wild ride for the semiconductor industry, and the United States and Trump administration as a whole. Personally, I'd like to see the simulation move towards SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk acquiring Intel... imagine the heads exploding if that happened.