Sujai Shivakumar, Charles Wessner, and Chris Borges
The Trump administration’s decision to support Intel as a national champion in chipmaking is a recognition of an economic security reality: Industrial policy has become the norm across advanced economies. Around the world, governments provide extensive support—through subsidies, tax incentives, and direct investment—to ensure their firms can meet the immense technical and financial challenges of producing advanced semiconductors. Intel, now at a critical juncture in its push to manufacture leading-edge semiconductors domestically, requires an infusion of capital to remain competitive.
Given the critical role of semiconductors in the modern economy, supporting Intel today is not about protecting one company for its own sake. It is about securing the industrial base necessary for national security in an era of geopolitical competition. The alternative—a U.S. future dependent on foreign sources for the most advanced chips—is strategically untenable.
The specific terms of support will matter. What governance rights will accompany federal funding? How much autonomy will Intel retain in commercial decisions? Will this set a precedent for future grants? Yet the strategic point remains: If the United States relies solely on market forces, it risks ceding leadership in one of the world’s most important industries. The United States needs Intel, and Intel needs U.S. support.
Can a Single Company Play a Strategic Role?
The short answer is yes. Intel should be thought of as part of the infrastructure that underpins U.S. technological leadership. Over the course of decades, Intel has developed a deep network of knowledge, resources, and relationships that underpin its ability to produce extremely complex and sensitive technologies crucial to many aspects of the U.S. economy, as well as U.S. national defense. This complex network with a capable U.S. firm at its core took many years to grow and is of major strategic value. Especially given its scale, Intel plays a key role in sustaining the industrial commons that anchor the activities of other semiconductor companies in the United States.
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