Episode Details

Story of the Week (DR):

Trump Demands Intel CEO’s Resignation, Says He’s ‘Highly CONFLICTED’ AND Eric and Donald Trump Jr. to Own Millions of Shares in New U.S. Manufacturing SPAC MM

ESG Analyst Tom Cotton: Trump's attack, posted on Truth Social Thursday, came two days after GOP Sen. Tom Cotton flagged Tan's prior investments in Chinese companies and his previous leadership at Cadence Design Systems, which recently pleaded guilty to unlawfully selling its tech to a blacklisted military university in China.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan (~$70M golden hello in March; max potential $400M) directly addressed employees on Thursday after Donald Trump demanded his resignation over national security concerns, saying he has the full support of the board.

Tan set up a venture firm called Walden International based in San Francisco that pumped more than $5 billion into over 600 companies. More than 100 of those investments were made in China, including deals with once-obscure startups such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp.—today China’s largest chipmaker—where he served on the board for a decade and a half.

Today, the executive is still chairman of Walden International. And he’s the founding managing partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, which focuses on investments in the U.S., Europe and Israel. He also serves in that role at another venture fund, Celesta Global Capital.

Tan stepped out of the venture world and joined the chip industry full-time when he became interim head of San Jose, California-based Cadence Design Systems Inc. in 2008. The executive, who had previously served on the board, went on to take the permanent CEO job the next year. He stayed in the role until 2021, when he transitioned to executive chairman, and is widely credited with restoring the company’s fortunes. 

In late July of this year, the Department of Justice announced a plea deal that cost Cadence more than $100 million in fines. Employees at Cadence’s China unit allegedly hid the name of a customer—the National University of Defense Technology—from internal compliance in order to keep supplying it. That organization had been put on the Department of Commerce’s blacklist in 2015. The Chinese university was one of a group of supercomputer operators there that had conducted simulations of nuclear explosions, the DOJ said.

Shares of American Eagle surge 20% after Trump calls Sydney Sweeney campaign 'hottest ad out there' AND Epstein victims are a growing political threat to Trump

The Fall 2025 campaign, titled "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans," centers on a deliberate pun between "jeans" and "genes."

"Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining tr