U.S. government’s Intel stake swells to $35 billion, netting $26.5 billion unrealized gain

The U.S. government is holding an unrealized gain of roughly $26.5 billion on its Intel (INTC) stake after the chipmaker’s shares jumped more than 22% in pre-mrket trading on Friday, following a stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings report.

The position stems from an August deal in which the Trump administration converted $8.9 billion in CHIPS Act grants and Secure Enclave funding into 433.3 million Intel shares at $20.47 apiece, giving it about a 9.9% ownership stake. With Intel trading near $81.80 in pre-marketing trading Friday, the holding is now valued at approximately $35.4 billion, nearly tripling in less than a year.

The government also holds warrants to purchase an additional 5% stake at $20 per share, options that are now deep in the money.

Intel’s rally was driven by a sharp earnings beat. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $13.6 billion, up 7% year over year and above Wall Street expectations of $12.4 billion. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.29, far exceeding the consensus estimate of a $0.01 loss.

Growth was led by Intel’s Data Center and AI segment, which rose 22% to $5.1 billion as demand for Xeon processors accelerates alongside the broader AI infrastructure buildout.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan pointed to a shift in AI computing toward inference and agentic workloads, saying the trend is “significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs.”

Intel guided revenue in the range of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion for the second quarter.