By Jaspreet Singh and Max A. Cherney
(Reuters) -SoftBank Group is taking a $2 billion equity stake in Intel, the two companies said on Monday, amid a ramp-up in efforts to provide financial support to the struggling U.S. chipmaker.
The Japanese investment company will pay $23 per share for Intel common stock, they said in a joint statement. SoftBank would become the sixth largest investor in Intel, according to LSEG data.
SoftBank's investment will come via a primary issuance of common stock by Intel,
and, based on the U.S. company's market capitalisation at close of trading on Monday, would represent an equity stake of just under 2%, an Intel spokesperson said.
Bloomberg News reported earlier on Monday that the U.S. government is in talks to take a 10% stake in Intel. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump called for the resignation of the company's CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier this month.
Media reports had said last week that the U.S. government may buy a stake in Intel, after a meeting between Tan and Trump that was sparked by the U.S. president's demand for the Intel chief's resignation over his ties to Chinese firms.
SoftBank declined to provide more details on the Intel investment when asked to comment by Reuters.
It would be the latest in the Japanese company's run of mammoth investment announcements in 2025, which include committing $30 billion to ChatGPT maker OpenAI as well as leading the financing for Stargate, a $500 billion data centre project in the U.S.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru, Max Cherney in San Francisco and Anton Bridge in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel; Alan Barona and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
