Trump Calls For Malaysian-Born Intel CEO's Resignation Because: CHINA! CHINA!! CHINA!!!

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US president Donald Trump has called for the immediate resignation of Intel’s new CEO, Malaysian-born Lip-Bu Tan, accusing him of being “highly conflicted” due to past investments in Chinese companies — some allegedly tied to the Chinese military.

The demand comes at a delicate moment for Intel, which is undergoing a sweeping strategic overhaul under Tan’s leadership, The Star reported.

Since taking over in March, Tan has announced plans to slash the company’s workforce by 22% to 75,000 employees by year’s end and pause construction on certain manufacturing plants as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Trump’s comments, posted on his Truth Social platform, followed a Reuters report that U.S. Republican Senator Tom Cotton had sent a letter to Intel’s board chair questioning Tan’s links to Chinese firms and a past criminal case involving his former company, Cadence Design. “There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump wrote, sending Intel’s shares down roughly 4% in premarket trading.

Reuters previously reported that between 2012 and late 2024, Tan — personally or through venture funds he founded — invested at least $200 million in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip companies. A source told Reuters that Tan has since divested from his Chinese holdings, though public databases in China still list many of those investments as active, and the scale of the divestments remains unclear.

Intel, in a statement on Wednesday, said it and Tan remain “deeply committed to the national security of the U.S. and the integrity of our role in the U.S. defense ecosystem,” and that the company would address Senator Cotton’s concerns directly.

The controversy adds to Intel’s challenges. Once the dominant name in chipmaking, the company has slipped behind Taiwan’s TSMC in manufacturing capabilities and has little presence in the booming AI chip market dominated by Nvidia. Still, Intel remains a central player in Washington’s push to boost domestic semiconductor production, having secured nearly $20 billion in federal grants and loans last year — the largest award under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

Born in 1959 in Muar, Johor, Malaysia, Lip-Bu Tan was raised in Singapore, where he graduated with a physics degree from Nanyang University at age 19. He earned a master’s in nuclear engineering from MIT and later an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

In 1987, Tan founded Walden International, growing its assets from US$20 million to about US$2 billion by 2001. The firm became known for backing semiconductor and tech startups across Asia, with Forbes dubbing Tan the “pioneer of Asian VC”.

Tan served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021, where he drove a revival that more than doubled the company’s revenue and boosted its stock by over 3,200 percent.

Intel appointed Tan as CEO in March 2025 (effective March 18), and he also rejoined its board of directors.

READ MORE: From Muar To The World Stage: Intel Appoints Johor-Born Lip-Bu Tan As CEO

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