President Trump has posted a demand on Truth Social that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan resign immediately: “The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”
That’s not exactly exhaustive, and the president does not include a link to the document which would have enabled readers to understand what he is alluding to and which probably inspired the president’s post: an August 5, 2025 letter by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton to the chairman of the board of Intel about Lip-Bu Tan’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. But people are figuring it out.
The concern about the “new” CEO of Intel is belated—Lip-Bu Tan (shown above) was appointed in March 2025—but as we say in the StoptheCCP biz, better late than never. A development only a week old may have gotten the ball rolling.
Cotton writes:
In March 2025, Intel appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO. Mr. Tan reportedly controls dozens of Chinese companies and has a stake in hundreds of Chinese advanced-manufacturing and chip firms. At least eight of these companies reportedly have ties to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
Mr. Tan was most recently the CEO of Cadence Design Systems, a company that makes electronic design automation technology, which is a key enabler of advanced chip design. Last week, Cadence pleaded guilty to selling its products to a Chinese military university and transferring its technology to an associated Chinese semiconductor company without obtaining licenses. These illegal activities occurred under Mr. Tan’s tenure.
Cotton wants to know whether the Intel board was aware of what was going on with Cadence before hiring him, whether the board required Tan to divest from firms linked to the CCP and PLA before hiring him, and whether Tan has “disclosed any remaining investments, professional roles, or other ties to Chinese companies to the U.S. government.”
Cotton’s letter—much more concise than the research papers that congressional committees often submit as letters of inquiry—doesn’t go so far as to demand that Tan be relieved of his position, aka resign. But Trump is right. Intel should dump him. Not now. Yesterday.
