Former Intel chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said that despite Intel’s latest manufacturing milestones, the United States remains far behind Asia in advanced chip production and faces a long road to reclaim its position. Speaking on Fox Business’ “The Claman Countdown,” Gelsinger stressed that the key benchmark is how many wafers are being built in America, calling that “the only thing that matters” when judging the progress of United States chip manufacturing. His comments come as the Trump administration steps up efforts to expand domestic semiconductor production, including taking an ownership stake in Intel and publicly backing the company’s plans to build leading edge facilities on United States soil.
Gelsinger noted that much of the world’s advanced chip manufacturing is still concentrated in Asia, particularly Taiwan, a concentration that United States officials say raises economic and national security risks. He warned that reversing this long term trend will not be quick, saying that it took decades for production capacity to “sediment into Asia” and that it does not come back quickly. The administration’s moves include a national security driven push to bring more advanced semiconductor production back home, with advanced computer chips described as vital to the military, consumer electronics and other sectors in order to stay competitive in the Artificial Intelligence race.
President Donald Trump recently met with current Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan at the White House, later praising the company on social media and saying the United States government is “proud to be a shareholder of Intel.” In August, the United States government took a nearly 10% stake in the chipmaker as part of that broader strategy. Tan responded on X that he was honored to have the full support of the president and the commerce secretary as Intel works to bring leading edge chip manufacturing back to America. Gelsinger said major designers such as Nvidia and AMD still need to commit to manufacturing their chips on American soil and argued that bringing those design customers into Intel’s United States foundries is central to the company’s long term strategy. He said he is encouraged by recent milestones but emphasized that “we have a lot more to do.”
