MW Is Intel now a Trump stock? Its stock is surging after upbeat comments by J.D. Vance.

By Therese Poletti

Vance bullishness on U.S. chip making bodes well for Intel's manufacturing efforts

Shares of Intel Corp. were surging on Tuesday after Vice President J.D. Vance made bullish comments about semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. at an artificial-intelligence summit in Paris.

Intel $(INTC)$ shares were surging more than 7% on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, the stock was the best performer in the S&P 500 SPX.

"To safeguard America's advantage, the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American-designed-and-manufactured chips," Vance said in Paris.

Intel is the biggest U.S. manufacturer of semiconductors, and it is trying to expand its business into becoming a large foundry to make chips for other companies. It was a recipient of about $8 billion in funding from the U.S. Chips Act under President Joe Biden. While the future of the Chips Act is still unclear under President Trump, the comments by Vance portend less regulation and a similar push toward manufacturing chips in the U.S.

While Intel does not have a major AI chip offering right now - and in fact has cancelled one of its AI chips in development - it hopes to continue to manufacture chips for other companies, especially in the AI arena. It currently has a contract to manufacture Amazon.com Inc.'s $(AMZN)$ Tranium chips, which that company's AWS cloud business uses for AI.

Read also: Why Intel's latest move for its foundry business is so significant.

"I think the Chips Act for Intel will continue, but I am less sure for TSMC," said Patrick Moorhead, chief executive and chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. $(TSM)$ (TW:2330) TSMC has taken over the global crown as the world's largest chip manufacturer. "Trump will be pressuring Nvidia $(NVDA)$, AMD $(AMD)$, Broadcom $(AVGO)$, Marvell (MRVL, ) Apple $(AAPL)$ and Qualcomm $(QCOM)$ to do more with Intel."

All of those U.S.-based chip developers - which are selling AI chips, some of which are in broader use than Intel's Gaudi chips for AI - are currently using TSMC for their manufacturing capabilities. TSMC also has a new manufacturing plant in Arizona, and just announced in early January that it began producing advanced chips at a scale of 4 nanometers, which it built via some funding from the U.S. Chips Act as well.

Intel, for its part, is still looking for a new CEO, but the comments by Vance indicate that the Trump administration could be an ally in furthering the strategy set forth by former CEO Pat Gelsinger, who worked hard during his tenure to get the federal government to back chip manufacturing in the U.S. Regulations for semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. have made building domestic chip plants very costly and time-consuming, partly because of the environmental issues associated with chip making.

Presumably, investors are seeing Vance's comments as an indication that the Trump administration could make it easier for companies like Intel to finish building out some of their U.S. plants with less red tape.

-Therese Poletti

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February 11, 2025 12:45 ET (17:45 GMT)

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