The White House is negotiating to convert roughly $7.9 billion in CHIPS and Science Act grants earmarked for Intel Corp. into a government equity stake of about 10%, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Lutnick told CNBC the shares would be non-voting, stressing that Washington “does not want to run the business,” while Bessent said the additional support is intended to stabilise the struggling U.S. chipmaker and close a critical national-security gap in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. Officials are also studying whether to apply the same grant-for-equity model to other recipients of the $52.7 billion CHIPS programme, including Micron Technology, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics, Reuters reported. Most of the subsidies for those companies have yet to be disbursed, giving the administration leverage to seek similar positions once terms are finalised. The plan has drawn rare bipartisan backing: Senator Bernie Sanders said taxpayers deserve a return on public subsidies, even as some Republican lawmakers warned that federal ownership edges toward “socialism.” Semiconductor shares were volatile following the news; Intel initially climbed on prospects of fresh capital, while several Asian chip stocks retreated on concern that U.S. intervention could broaden. The administration argues that obtaining equity will both protect taxpayers and accelerate domestic chip production at a time when 99% of cutting-edge semiconductors are still made abroad.