The Trump administration has held talks on taking a 10 per cent stake in Intel, in one of the largest government interventions in a US company since the 2008 auto bailouts.

The discussion has included converting $10.86 billion in recent federal grants into equity in Intel, which is worth about $100 billion.

In 2008, to prevent the collapse of Chrysler and General Motors, the government poured tens of billions of dollars into the companies and helped them reorganise. The manoeuvre is believed to have saved more than a million auto industry jobs.

While the US is not facing a similar economic threat today, the Trump administration has been unusually aggressive in taking stakes in businesses. The federal government took a “golden share” in US Steel this year as part of a deal to approve its sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

Tuesday’s move would underscore Intel’s strategic importance as America’s last advanced chip producer, at a time when Taiwan’s TSMC dominates the market and tensions with China are rising.

But analysts question whether a government stake would solve Intel’s deeper issues, including a struggling foundry business and missed opportunities in AI.