What happened
Intel shares dropped roughly 30% on Friday, marking the company's worst single-day performance since 1974. Its fourth-quarter revenue outlook came in below Wall Street expectations, wiping out about $150 billion in market value. Intel still beat expectations in its third-quarter earnings report.
What happened to the government's stake
The US administration invested $8.9 billion in Intel in August 2025 as part of a push to boost semiconductor supply. The stock had climbed as much as 150% this year, topping $92 a share and pushing the value of the government's stake toward $40 billion. After Friday's drop, that stake fell below $30 billion, meaning more than $11 billion in taxpayer-funded value was erased. The stock is now hovering just above $60.
What is pressuring Intel
Two forces are at work. First, the personal computing market has contracted as AI-driven price increases suppress consumer demand. Second, supply-side production problems persist. Intel is caught between a declining PC sector and a pivot to data center-friendly server processors.
The bigger picture
Intel is not alone: Alphabet also lost more than half a trillion dollars in market value last week. Investors are increasingly questioning whether Big Tech can sustain its massive data center spending. The swing also illustrates how volatile it can be for a government to take a major stake in a publicly traded company.
