At the “Winning the AI Race” summit in Washington, President Donald Trump revealed he once considered breaking up Nvidia to spur competition in the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip sector. Trump later acknowledged that he abandoned the idea after realizing Nvidia’s technological dominance and the complexity of the chipmaking landscape. Industry insiders, however, argue the real candidate for government intervention isn’t Nvidia — it’s Intel.

Intel posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss after incurring nearly US$3 billion in restructuring and impairment charges, underscoring the high financial cost of its ongoing turnaround effort. The chipmaker raised alarm bells by warning it may exit advanced node development altogether if it fails to attract sufficient external foundry customers for its next-generation 14A process.

Alphabet has raised its 2025 capital expenditure to US$85 billion from US$75 billion as technology companies accelerate artificial intelligence infrastructure investments despite uncertain returns, with server manufacturers including Quanta and Foxconn poised to benefit.