U.S. President Donald Trump said he met with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan on Monday, just days after seeking his resignation, praising Tan and calling the meeting "a very interesting one."
Shares of the U.S. chipmaker rose 3% in extended trading.
Last week, Trump had demanded the immediate resignation of Tan, calling him "highly conflicted" over his ties to Chinese firms, injecting uncertainty into the chipmaker's years-long turnaround effort.
Trump said he met with Tan, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. His Cabinet members and Tan were going to bring suggestions to him next week, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"His success and rise is an amazing story," Trump said about Tan.
Trump's demand last week came after a Republican senator raised national security concerns over Tan's links to firms in China.
"The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem," Trump posted on Truth Social last Thursday.
The Malaysia-born tech industry veteran Tan released a statement at the time saying that the company was engaged with the Trump administration to address the concerns raised and ensure officials "have the facts."
Tan had invested in hundreds of Chinese firms, some of which were linked to the Chinese military, Reuters reported in April. It is not illegal for U.S. citizens to hold stakes in Chinese companies unless they have been added to the U.S. Treasury's Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List, which explicitly bans such investments.
Intel is one of Silicon Valley's most iconic companies, but its fortunes have been dwarfed by Asian powerhouses TSMC and Samsung, which dominate the made-to-order semiconductor business.
Tan has been tasked to undo years of missteps that left Intel struggling to make inroads in the booming AI chip industry dominated by Nvidia, while investment-heavy contract manufacturing ambitions led to hefty losses.
In the roughly six months as Intel CEO, Tan made major strategic shifts that included divesting assets, laying off employees and redirecting resources.
But the demand for Tan's resignation will only distract him from that task, according to investors and a former senior employee.
Tan is now making an effort to reassure Trump that he remains the right person to revive the storied American chipmaker.
Tan met with Trump for a candid and constructive discussion on the company's commitment to strengthening U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership, Intel said in a statement.
The company said it would work closely with the administration to "restore this great American company."
Trump's intervention marked a rare instance of a U.S. president publicly calling for a CEO's ouster and raised questions about his control over corporate affairs.
This was also evident in an agreement calling for Nvidia and AMD to give the U.S. government 15% of revenue from China sales.
