What Intel needs is external customers for its 14A manufacturing process - a tough ask, at least in the short term.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. government had reached a deal to take a 10 percent equity stake in the chipmaker Intel, worth approximately $10 billion. “I said, I think it would be good having the United States as your partner,” Trump said Friday at the White House. “ [CEO Lip-Bu Tan] agreed, and they’ve agreed to do it.”