President Donald Trump wants the U.S. government to own a piece of Intel, less than two weeks after demanding the Silicon Valley pioneer dump the CEO that was hired to turn around the slumping chipmaker.

A US government plan to take a stake in Intel Corp. would give the ailing chipmaker a powerful backer, even if a bigger challenge still lies ahead: finding enough paying customers.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed on Tuesday that the US government is considering an extraordinary investment in struggling chipmaker Intel. But they gave different answers about what the Trump administration sought to do with that stake.