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What’s especially fascinating is that, according to the President, “The United States paid nothing for these shares” worth approximately $11 Billion USD.
How, exactly did this all come to pass?
Well, the current CEO of Intel — a man named Lip-Bu Tan — is also the Chairman of an investment firm called Walden International. A position he continued to hold after becoming the new head of Intel.
Back on July 18th, the US Congress Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote a letter expressing concern regarding Walden International’s investments in Chinese Communist Party tied corporations.
But Intel CEO’s ties to China didn’t end there.
Lip-Bu Tan was also, previously, the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which plead guilty to illegally selling chip design software and hardware to the Chinese Military.
President Trump chimed in, on August 7th, stating that “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.”
Then he goes on to talk about the IME in light of this:
The way I see it, the results of government ownership of Intel could impact the Intel Management Engine in one of two ways:
The Good: The government could provide oversight into potential, or already existing, abuses of the IME which may be impacting the security and privacy of US citizens, government agencies, and corporations. The government could even force Intel to remove the IME entirely. A massive win for computer security and privacy.
The Bad: The government could take advantage (or further advantage) of the IME for their own purposes. Possibly even expanding the IME’s already extensive surveillance capabilities.
Now, I don’t know about you, but my gut tells me the bad option is far more likely than the good one.
Even if that is not the intention of President Trump in making this deal… Someone, somewhere within the federal government is already planning ways which the IME can be used (or used further), in ways which we, as citizens, will not like.
But, and this is important, the US government is not the only organization with control over Intel.
The Other Big Players
While this 10% stake makes the USA the single largest shareholder of Intel, both Blackrock and Vanguard come in at a close second (both with close to 9% of the shares).
I know, that's disgusting. I'll never buy another piece of Intel hardware again with the U.S. government having controlling interest in the company. There will be exploitation.
I immediately knew something was up with the way he suddenly switched gears on the Intel CEO, but I didn't imagine this.
Intel processors and chipsets have been easier to work with, so I've bought ONLY that (for myself). The processors were more forgiving too, in various ways.
I don't think that's so much the case anymore, so next time it's going to be AMD.
