The Donald Trump administration, which has announced plans to seek an equity stake in Intel, is reportedly looking to obtain stakes in other chip manufacturers that receive CHIPS Act funding to build factories in the U.S., including Samsung Electronics.
Citing a White House official and a person familiar with the situation on Tuesday, Reuters said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is exploring how the U.S. can acquire equity stakes in Samsung Electronics, Micron and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company(TSMC).
While federal funding was promised — four-point-75 billion U.S. dollars for Samsung, six-point-two billion dollars for Micron and six-point-six billion dollars for TSMC — much of the funding has yet to be disbursed.
The report comes after the Trump administration announced it is moving to take a ten percent equity stake in Intel, with Lutnick telling CNBC that Washington does not want to tell Intel how to run its operations.
Such a push to obtain stakes is unprecedented and is seen as the administration’s way of increasing U.S. influence on the companies.