The CEO of Intel is under fire.

Yesterday, President Trump sent a now-viral post on Truth Social:

Within minutes, Intel’s stock plunged 3%.

But this wasn’t a one-day reaction. Intel shares have already fallen 60% over the last five years.

And this latest news adds even more uncertainty to a company that already has too much of it.

What’s most frustrating is that Intel wasn’t always like this.

For years, it was one of the most dominant chip companies on the planet.

Today? It’s a cautionary tale.

Here’s How Intel Fell Behind

Intel was built on CPUs – central processing units.

These are the chips that power PCs.

Think of a CPU like a head chef in a kitchen: great at managing complex tasks, but not built for multitasking at scale.

For decades, Intel dominated this market.

That was… up until the late 2010s when Intel’s 7nm and 10nm chips faced years of delays.

That left the door wide open for AMD to swoop in.

Now, AMD now holds 25% of the server CPU market – a space Intel once owned almost entirely.

Worse, Intel was so busy playing defense, it missed the next big wave: AI.

While Intel doubled down on CPUs, Nvidia bet everything on GPUs – graphics processing units.

If CPUs are head chefs, GPUs are line cooks.

They’re built for handling thousands of small tasks at once – perfect for training massive AI models.

In the last 5 years, Nvidia is up 1,500%. Intel is down 60%.

That divergence tells you everything you need to know.

In 2021, Intel brought back long-time engineer Pat Gelsinger as CEO.

He had a bold vision: compete directly with Taiwan’s TSMC by becoming a world-class chip manufacturer again.

This was a dramatic shift.

Most of today’s top chip companies (Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom) follow the “fabless” model.

They design chips, but outsource manufacturing to TSMC or Samsung.

Intel wanted to do both.

The idea wasn’t crazy.

Covid-era supply chain issues showed how fragile the global chip network was. And Washington was encouraging companies to onshore manufacturing and reduce dependence on Asia.

Intel even received funding through the U.S. government’s Secure Enclave program – designed to secure chips for national defense.

But good ideas still need good execution.

Intel tried to buy its way into the foundry race by acquiring GlobalFoundries and Tower Semiconductor, but both deals fell through.

That left only one option: spend billions building new factories from scratch.

At the very moment Intel was losing share in its core business, it began racking up unprecedented costs.

Today, Intel is bleeding cash. Revenue is shrinking. Earnings are down. And that once-promising foundry bet may now be getting walked back.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Touch It

This is a controversial opinion here at Paradigm Press.

But I’m an independent investor. And this is my money.

President Trump’s attack on Intel’s new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, marks just the latest hit for a company already under pressure.

Senators are calling for investigations. Intel says he divested. But it’s another distraction for a company that desperately needs focus.

If you’re looking at the stock, just know that Intel may look cheap.

But it’s not a value stock. It’s a value trap.

It lacks a growth engine. It has no competitive edge in AI. Its leadership is distracted. And its only long-term bet (manufacturing) might be on the chopping block.

Meanwhile, top-tier chip companies like Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) are executing flawlessly.

Nvidia is riding the AI wave, with chips that power everything from ChatGPT to autonomous driving.

Broadcom is powering hyperscaler infrastructure with custom ASICs and a strategic acquisition engine that actually delivers.

You don’t need to own Intel here. It’s dead money.

If and when Intel proves it has a strategy and leadership with both vision and clarity – then we can talk.

But for now, better opportunities are passing it by.

Own those instead.