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Released August 20, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--SoftBank Group (Tokyo, Japan) on Monday agreed to purchase $2 billion worth of Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, California) common stock, with the lifeline coming after the chipmaker cut its capital spending guidance for 2025.
"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," said Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank, in a joint press release. Under the terms of the agreement, SoftBank will pay $23 per share. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
Media reports indicate the Trump administration is discussing taking a 10% ownership stake in Intel, as the government aims to revive the struggling company and boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, although nothing formal has been announced. Such a move likely would need to be approved by Intel's board of directors.
The SoftBank-Intel agreement comes roughly one month after Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan and Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner reflected on the company's financial standing--and ongoing efforts to improve the company balance sheet--as part of the company's second-quarter earnings conference call in July.
Tan said the company had "completed the majority" of its planned layoffs, amounting to 15% of the workforce, and that it planned to end the year with 75,000 employees. Intel said it was trying to reduce operating expenses by $17 billion in 2025 and $16 billion in 2026.
The company's last full fiscal year of positive adjusted free cash flow was 2021.
"We have several major levers to generate better cash flow including driving operating leverage and managing our capital outlays," Tan said. "We have already lowered our capex [capital expenditure] guidance from the beginning of the year by roughly $5 billion year to date. While purchasing commitments make further reduction in 2025 difficult, we will continue to work to reduce capital spending in 2026."
Zinsner said the company anticipates 2025 gross capital investment will be approximately $18 billion and forecast $8 billion to $11 billion for net capital. "Better utilization of our construction-in-progress will allow us to deploy more overall capex in 2025 than in 2024, and we expect the improved utilization to continue in 2026, resulting in lower gross and net capex next year."
Intel's gross capex refers to "GAAP [generally accepted accounting principles] additions to property, plant, and equipment, while net capital spending is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as additions to property, plant, and equipment, net of proceeds from capital-related government incentives and partner contributions."
Industrial Info is tracking five projects worth $35 billion from Intel in the U.S., including two semiconductor fabrication (fab) centers under construction in New Albany, Ohio, amounting to $28 billion. Each fab will encompass approximately 1.4 million square feet, providing chips for the automotive, electronics and data center markets. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
Construction kicked off in 2022, with an initial opening date in 2025, although the effort has since been delayed into the 2030s. "The capacity investments we made over the last several years were well ahead of demand, and were unwise and excessive ... going forward, we will grow our capacity based solely on volume commitments and deploy capex (capital expenditures) lockstep with tangible milestones and not before," Tan said in the call. "We will further slow the pace of construction in Ohio to ensure our spending is aligned with market demand."
In addition to having been awarded governmental funding from the CHIPS and Science Act, the Ohio fabs also received a $2 billion public incentive package from the State of Ohio. With that said, the delayed project could face scrutiny from a future state audit.
State representatives Beryl Brown Piccolantonio (D-Gahanna) and Sean Patrick Brennan (D-Parma) earlier this month proposed a House resolution "calling for quarterly public updates and full financial accounting" of the project, including construction progress, according to a press release.
Subscribers to the GMI Database can click here for a full list of Intel's projects across the globe.
Earlier this month, Intel announced the cancellation of two European manufacturing plant projects as part of its 15% global workforce reduction. For more information, see August 4, 2025, article - Intel Cancels European Chip Plants, Increases Job Cuts.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
"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," said Masayoshi Son, chief executive officer of SoftBank, in a joint press release. Under the terms of the agreement, SoftBank will pay $23 per share. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.
Media reports indicate the Trump administration is discussing taking a 10% ownership stake in Intel, as the government aims to revive the struggling company and boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing, although nothing formal has been announced. Such a move likely would need to be approved by Intel's board of directors.
The SoftBank-Intel agreement comes roughly one month after Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan and Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner reflected on the company's financial standing--and ongoing efforts to improve the company balance sheet--as part of the company's second-quarter earnings conference call in July.
Tan said the company had "completed the majority" of its planned layoffs, amounting to 15% of the workforce, and that it planned to end the year with 75,000 employees. Intel said it was trying to reduce operating expenses by $17 billion in 2025 and $16 billion in 2026.
The company's last full fiscal year of positive adjusted free cash flow was 2021.
"We have several major levers to generate better cash flow including driving operating leverage and managing our capital outlays," Tan said. "We have already lowered our capex [capital expenditure] guidance from the beginning of the year by roughly $5 billion year to date. While purchasing commitments make further reduction in 2025 difficult, we will continue to work to reduce capital spending in 2026."
Zinsner said the company anticipates 2025 gross capital investment will be approximately $18 billion and forecast $8 billion to $11 billion for net capital. "Better utilization of our construction-in-progress will allow us to deploy more overall capex in 2025 than in 2024, and we expect the improved utilization to continue in 2026, resulting in lower gross and net capex next year."
Intel's gross capex refers to "GAAP [generally accepted accounting principles] additions to property, plant, and equipment, while net capital spending is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as additions to property, plant, and equipment, net of proceeds from capital-related government incentives and partner contributions."
Industrial Info is tracking five projects worth $35 billion from Intel in the U.S., including two semiconductor fabrication (fab) centers under construction in New Albany, Ohio, amounting to $28 billion. Each fab will encompass approximately 1.4 million square feet, providing chips for the automotive, electronics and data center markets. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
Construction kicked off in 2022, with an initial opening date in 2025, although the effort has since been delayed into the 2030s. "The capacity investments we made over the last several years were well ahead of demand, and were unwise and excessive ... going forward, we will grow our capacity based solely on volume commitments and deploy capex (capital expenditures) lockstep with tangible milestones and not before," Tan said in the call. "We will further slow the pace of construction in Ohio to ensure our spending is aligned with market demand."
In addition to having been awarded governmental funding from the CHIPS and Science Act, the Ohio fabs also received a $2 billion public incentive package from the State of Ohio. With that said, the delayed project could face scrutiny from a future state audit.
State representatives Beryl Brown Piccolantonio (D-Gahanna) and Sean Patrick Brennan (D-Parma) earlier this month proposed a House resolution "calling for quarterly public updates and full financial accounting" of the project, including construction progress, according to a press release.
Subscribers to the GMI Database can click here for a full list of Intel's projects across the globe.
Earlier this month, Intel announced the cancellation of two European manufacturing plant projects as part of its 15% global workforce reduction. For more information, see August 4, 2025, article - Intel Cancels European Chip Plants, Increases Job Cuts.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).
