Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank is helping Intel. It is buying shares in the troubled US chip manufacturer for two billion dollars (almost 42 billion CZK). The Japanese company announced this on its website today.
Investment and market reaction
The purchase price of $23 per share is slightly lower than Monday’s closing price. Intel shares rose more than five percent after the announcement on Monday after trading closed.
On Monday, Intel shares lost 3.6 percent of their value during regular trading. This may have been caused by an earlier report by Bloomberg that the US government was negotiating to acquire a ten percent stake in Intel.
Government influence and Intel’s problems
According to this report, Intel would provide the government with shares in exchange for billions in subsidies promised to the company by President Joe Biden’s administration. At that time, Intel received promises of approximately $8 billion under a US law to support the chip industry. Together with military projects, this would total nearly $11 billion, which is equivalent to the market value of 10 percent of Intel.
Intel once dominated the semiconductor market, but has been struggling for several years. In particular, graphics card specialist Nvidia has taken the lead in the field of chips for artificial intelligence. Intel is also under stronger pressure in its traditional field of personal computer processors and data center chips.
Source: ČTK
