Trump gives Intel CEO a free commercial from the Oval Office

Intel pledged on Wednesday that the chipmaker would commit $7 billion to build a new factory in Arizona while hiring at least 3,000 employees, an expansion that the company’s chief executive, Brian Krzanich, attributed to President Donald Trump — even though some of those plans have been in the works for years.

After a meeting with Trump at the White House, the president essentially turned the microphone over to Krzanich for what amounted to a product unveiling in the Oval Office that aired for free on the major cable networks. The Intel CEO touted the fact that the company makes the “majority” of its products in the United States, showed off a new computer chip and stressed the company held off on “doing this investment until now.”


"We're very happy and I can tell you the people of Arizona are very happy," Trump later said.

Intel, however, had set its plans in motion long ago. It announced its intentions in 2011 to invest $5 billion for a new chip facility in Chandler, Arizona, under Krzanich’s predecessor, former CEO Paul Otellini. The manufacturing hub — revealed at a public event alongside former President Barack Obama, in fact — was supposed to be finished by 2013.

Yet Intel pulled the plug on expanding the site, known as Fab 42, as PC sales for both the company and the rest of the industry began to decline. Then, in 2016, Intel shed as many as 12,000 workers, as it sought to restructure its business and focus on newer, cutting-edge technologies and devices, from artificial intelligence to drones. Now, as part of that evolution, Intel is committing new cash to its once-paused plant in Arizona.

“The CEO of Intel [expressed] this has been a project that has been contemplated for close to four years,” said Reed Cordish, recently tapped by Trump as a top advisor on tech issues, during the Oval Office gathering. “The president and the administration’s commitment to tax reform, smart regulation and deregulation and a general attitude of ‘make it in America’ has given them the confidence and the will to move forward and to indeed create this and now make it a reality.”

A spokeswoman for Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Still, Krzanich’s outreach to Trump is critical to his company’s bottom line. The president’s proposed changes to tax and trade policies matter a great deal to the chipmaker, given the high volume of products it exports to China and other countries.

Krzanich first tried to engage Trump during the 2016 campaign, inviting the then-GOP candidate to his home in California for “a conversation about the issues.” But the Intel executive ultimately canceled the June affair – criticized by many in the liberal-leaning Valley -- after he realized it had turned into a fundraiser.

In the months to follow, Krzanich has continued trying to work with Trump, even joining the so-called “tech summit” at Trump Tower last December alongside executives from Apple, Facebook and Google. But Krzanich, like others in his industry, has broken with the White House over issues like immigration. After Trump signed his executive order, which imposes new travel restrictions on many Muslim-majority countries, the Intel CEO told his employees: “This is not a policy we can support.”

Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this article.