SoftBank Group has agreed to take a US$2 billion (~RM9.3 billion) equity stake in Intel, the two companies announced on Monday. The Japanese investment giant will purchase the semiconductor giant‘s common stock at US$23 per share through a primary issuance, giving it just under a 2% holding. Data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) shows this would make SoftBank Intel’s sixth largest shareholder.
For SoftBank, the Intel purchase adds to a string of large-scale technology investments this year. The firm has already committed US$30 billion (~RM139.5 billion) to OpenAI and led the financing of Stargate, a US$500 billion (~RM2.33 trillion) data centre project in the United States.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported that the US government is in talks to convert part or all of Intel’s US$10.9 billion (~RM50.7 billion) in Chips Act grants into a 10% equity stake. That potential stake would dwarf SoftBank’s investment and place Washington as Intel’s single largest shareholder if the deal goes through.
The talks between Intel and the US government follow a tense exchange earlier this month, when President Donald Trump publicly called for CEO Lip-Bu Tan to resign over alleged ties to Chinese companies. The president later met with Tan and showed support, but talks on a possible government stake in Intel have since grown.
(Source: Reuters [1] [2] / Bloomberg)
