Intel shares slipped Thursday after President Donald Trump referred to as for the chipmaker’s CEO to step down.

In a Reality Social publish, Trump mentioned Intel Chief Govt Lip-Bu Tan “is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem.”

Intel mentioned in a remark later Thursday that the corporate, administrators and Tan are “deeply committed to advancing U.S. national and economic security interests.”

“We are continuing to invest billions of dollars in domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, including our new fab in Arizona that will run the most advanced manufacturing process technology in the country, and are the only company investing in leading logic process node development in the U.S.,” the assertion mentioned.

Tan was named as Intel CEO in March as the corporate tried to rebound from declining gross sales underneath the stewardship of Pat Gelsinger.

This week, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., questioned Tan’s ties to Chinese language corporations and referenced a previous legal case involving Cadence Design, the place Tan was CEO till 2021.

Cotton wrote to Intel’s chair to “specific concern concerning the safety and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential affect on U.S. nationwide safety.”

“Intel is required to be a responsible steward of American taxpayer dollars and to comply with applicable security regulations,” Cotton wrote. “Mr. Tan’s associations raise questions about Intel’s ability to fulfill these obligations.”

Cotton requested whether or not the corporate required Tan to divest from positions in chipmakers linked to the Chinese language Communist Get together, the Folks’s Liberation Military and another regarding entities in China.

Tan has invested in plenty of Chinese language corporations, together with some linked to the nation’s army, each instantly or via enterprise funds, Reuters reported in April.

Intel beat income expectations when it reported financials for the second quarter in July, however introduced a number of spending cuts.

In a memo, Tan introduced cuts to the corporate’s expensive foundry division, which makes chips for different corporations and had an working lack of $3.17 billion.

The corporate canceled deliberate fab tasks in Germany and Poland, and consolidated testing and meeting operations in Vietnam and Malaysia. Tan additionally mentioned Intel would sluggish development of a chip manufacturing facility in Ohio.

— CNBC’s Kif Leswing and Chris Eudaily contributed to this text.

Correction: Intel beat income expectations when it reported financials for the second quarter. An earlier model misstated the metric.