SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA (dpa)
The shares of chipmaker Intel jumped by more than 7% on Thursday following a report that the US government is discussing taking a stake in the company.
The financial news agency Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with the struggling chipmaker to take a stake in it. The move would support Intel's efforts to expand US production, according to the report.
Bloomberg, citing "sources close to the matter," reported that the idea is the result of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan at the White House earlier this week.
The size of the potential stake the US government would buy was not initially clear, according to the news agency.
Intel did not comment specifically on the possible plans when asked by Bloomberg.
In a statement to US broadcasters including CNN, a White House spokesman said that without an official announcement, "discussion about hypothetical deals should be regarded as speculation."
Trump had previously demanded Tan's immediate resignation after a US senator accused the Intel boss of being too close to China.
Intel only appointed the 65-year-old, the former head of chip developer Cadence Design Systems, to the top job in March after a months-long search.
After the meeting at the White House, Trump then said that "Tan and my Cabinet members are going to spend time together, and bring suggestions to me during the next week."
Intel once dominated the chip industry, but has fallen behind in recent years.
The company hoped to leverage its PC business expertise to mobile devices, but more energy-efficient processors prevailed.
Smartphone chips are widely sourced from Intel's competitors, such as Qualcomm or TSMC, and Nvidia leads by a wide margin in chip systems for artificial intelligence.