Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., departs following a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 11, 2025.
Alex Wroblewski | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Intel and SoftBank announced on Monday that the Japanese conglomerate will make a $2 billion investment the embattled chipmaker.
SoftBank will pay $23 per share for Intel’s common stock. Intel shares rose 4% in extended trading.
The investment is a vote of confidence in Intel, which has not been able to take advantage of the AI boom in advanced semiconductors and has spent heavily to stand up a manufacturing business that has yet to secure a significant customer.
“Masa and I have worked closely together for decades, and I appreciate the confidence he has placed in Intel with this investment,” Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a statement.
Intel shares lost 60% of their value last year, their worst performance in the company’s more than half-century on the public market. The stock is up 18% in 2025 as of Monday’s close.
Lip-Bu Tan took over as Intel CEO in March after investors pressured the chipmaker over falling share prices.
In recent days, Intel has been a topic of discussion in Washington, as the company is a critical U.S. supplier because it is the only American company capable of manufacturing the most advanced chips.
However, Intel’s business manufacturing chips for other companies, called its foundry business, has yet to secure a major customer, which would be a critical step towards stabilization and expansion. Last month, Intel said that it would wait to secure orders before it committed to certain further investment in its foundry.
Last week, Tan met with President Donald Trump after the president had called for Tan’s resignation. The U.S. government is considering taking a equity stake in Intel, according to reports.
SoftBank has become an increasingly large player in the global chip and AI markets.
In 2016, SoftBank acquired chip designer Arm in a deal worth about $32 billion at the time. Today the company is worth almost $150 billion.
Arm-based chips are part of Nvidia’s systems that go into data centers. And in March of this year, SoftBank announced plans to acquire another chip designer, Ampere Computing, for $6.5 billion.
SoftBank was also part of President Donald Trump’s Stargate announcement in January, along with OpenAI and Oracle.
The three companies committed to invest an initial $100 billion and up to $500 billion over the next four years in the AI infrastructure project.Two months later, SoftBank led a $40 billion investment round into OpenAI, the largest private tech deal on record.
“This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role,” SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said in a statement.
