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A week after the U.S. President publicly urged Intel’s new CEO, Lip‑Bu Tan, to step down over alleged ties to Chinese companies, SoftBank Group threw the embattled U.S. chipmaker a $2 billion lifeline. Intel will issue new shares to SoftBank at $23 each, just under a 2% stake that instantly puts the Japanese conglomerate among Intel’s top 10 shareholders, with no board seat and no promise to buy Intel chips. Intel shares jumped about 7% on the news; SoftBank’s fell roughly 4%.
The cash arrives after Intel’s bruising 2024, when it posted an $18.8 billion annual loss, its first since 1986, and ceded momentum in the AI accelerator race. SoftBank’s equity injection is being cast as both a vote of confidence and a bridge to deeper cooperation, even as analysts note Intel still has “virtually no foothold” in the hottest part of AI silicon, as Reuters reported.
The Trump–Intel backstory
Trump’s recent shots at Tan targeted the new chief on social media and said Tan should resign past business ties in China. Days later, Tan met with Trump at the White House, and the rhetoric shifted toward keeping Intel’s manufacturing base viable in the U.S. with help from allies and, potentially, the federal government.
By August 19, the administration floated an unusual step: converting some prior CHIPS Act awards into an equity stake in Intel, potentially around 10%, as WSJ reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said any government investment would be about stabilizing domestic production, not forcing customers to buy Intel chips. Lutnick said the goal is to convert grants into equity to benefit taxpayers. Specifics, including size and timing, apparently remain undecided.
Intel’s stock (INTC) climbed sharply ahead of SoftBank’s $2B investment announcement on Aug. 19, 2025, reflecting renewed investor confidence.
SoftBank’s broader AI-and-chips play
The Intel stake fits a year of aggressive, AI‑centric dealmaking by SoftBank. In March, it agreed to buy Ampere Computing, designer of Arm‑based server CPUs, for $6.5 billion, with closing expected later this year. SoftBank has also positioned itself as a megafinancier of AI infrastructure and models, committing tens of billions to OpenAI and championing the “Stargate” data‑center initiative in the U.S., a project widely reported at roughly $500 billion in scope in the long run.
SoftBank also remains the majority owner of Arm, the CPU‑architecture linchpin that underpins much of the world’s mobile and an increasing share of data‑center computing, an asset that gives SoftBank tap from chip design to the fabs where those designs are made. Arm has been expanding ambitions under SoftBank’s watch, and SoftBank has openly sought ways to knit its AI and semiconductor bets together.
Intel’s trading volume spiked sharply on August 19, 2025, as SoftBank’s $2B investment announcement drew heightened market activity.
Alongside the equity deal, and predating it by months, Intel and SoftBank have joined forces on a memory R&D venture called Saimemory. The aim: stacked, AI‑optimized DRAM that can match the throughput of today’s high‑bandwidth memory while cutting power draw by about 50%, easing one of the biggest bottlenecks (and utility bills) in AI data centers. A prototype and manufacturing feasibility are targeted for 2027, with commercialization before 2030. SoftBank is contributing roughly ¥3 billion to an approximately ¥10 billion project that also taps patents and engineering talent from Japanese institutions such as the University of Tokyo; SoftBank is slated to get priority access to chips once they’re produced, according to TechRepublic.
Corporate records suggest Saimemory was incorporated late in 2024, with reporting indicating additional contributions from Riken and substrate maker Shinko Electric. For Intel, the JV marks a surprise re‑entry to memory after divesting NAND and winding down Optane, and for Japan it’s a bid to claw back relevance in a field it once dominated.
Normalized stock performance for Intel (INTC), AMD, Nvidia, the SOXX semiconductor index, and SoftBank (SFTBY), rebased to 100 on August 12, 2025, a week before SoftBank’s $2B investment announcement. Normalization allows direct comparison across companies by setting all prices to the same base level.
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