SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week confirmed the federal government is vying for a 10 percent stake in Silicon Valley pioneer Intel in a deal that would deepen the Trump administration’s financial ties with major computer chip manufacturers.

The ambitions that Lutnick confirmed in a televised interview with CNBC came the day after various news outlets reported on the negotiations between the Trump administration and Intel.

The investment would be made by converting federal government grants previously pledged under President Joe Biden’s administration into a bushel of Intel stock that would turn the federal government into one of the company’s largest shareholders.

“We think America should get the benefit of the bargain,” Lutnick told CNBC as he explained why President Donald Trump is pushing for the deal. “It’s obvious that it’s the right move to make.”

Intel declined to comment on the negotiations with the Trump administration.

The notion of the federal government holding a huge stake in Intel would have seemed inconceivable back in the company’s heyday when its processors were powering a personal computer boom that began in the mid-1970s, but Intel has been mired in difficult times after missing the mobile computing era unleashed by the iPhone’s 2007 debut.

Intel has fallen even farther behind in recent years during an artificial intelligence craze that has been a boon for two of its once-smaller rivals, Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices.

The Trump administration is hitching a ride on their success by imposing a 15 percent commission on their sales of their chip sales in China in exchange for their export licenses. Those fees are expected to translate into billions of dollars in additional government revenue.

The federal government’s negotiations to become a major Intel shareholder are coming on the heels of a $2 billion investment Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group disclosed Monday that it plans to make in the Santa Clara, Calif., company. Softbank is accumulating its 2 percent stake in Intel at $23 per share — a slight discount from the stock’s price when its investment was announced.

SoftBank invests in an array of companies that it sees as holding long-term potential. It has been stepping up investments in the United States since Trump returned to the White House.

In February, its chairman Masayoshi Son joined Trump, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle in announcing a major investment of up to $500 billion in a project to develop artificial intelligence called Stargate.

“Semiconductors are the foundation of every industry, Son said in a statement. “This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role.”

Trump’s interest in Intel is also being driven by his desire to boost chip production in the United States, which has been a focal point of trade policies that he has been implementing throughout the world since he returned to the White House earlier this year for his second term in office.

“We want Intel to be successful in America,” Lutnick said during his CNBC interview.

The company is in the midst of its latest turnaround attempt under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was hired in March to shake things up.

Tan’s turnaround effort so far has been focused on a cost-cutting spree that is gutting the company’s workforce and further delaying construction on a chip plant in Licking County that has been in the works since 2022.

Boosting domestic production of computer chips also ranked high on the Biden administration’s agenda, which resulted in the 2022 passage of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Intel was among the biggest beneficiaries of the program, but it hasn’t been able to revive its fortunes.