Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (2:34)

It's the, it's first of all, it's the, it's President Trump's push on what's sold here is made here. Investing in US Semiconductor Manufacturing capacity here, expanding the intel foundry business as well as the growth of data centers, the growth of AI enabled PCs. So they are positioned I think perfectly to benefit from what is in the early innings of what going to be a long game of the AI driven growth in both the tech sector and the US and the global economy.

Bloomberg Interviewer (3:13)

So, okay, I just want to, this is a different company than it was six months ago as a result, as a result of the US investment. And I'm wondering what that position, what that type of, what that investment does for lifbutants position. Like you know when you're the CEO of a company and you come out with a report, you're, you're obviously, you got to worry about the board, you got to worry about shareholders. Now he's got to worry about a phone call from President Trump because the President likes to talk about how well the stock has done since the US Made that investment. What does that change the dynamic?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (3:53)

It doesn't. But it's really funny that President Trump wanted to go from deporting the guy to giving the guy money.

Bloomberg Interviewer (4:02)

Hey, that's the power of a conversation. Right.

Bloomberg Host (4:04)

But it also shows.

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (4:05)

Absolutely.

Bloomberg Host (4:05)

But it also shows how quickly things can change. Certainly from the White House perspective.

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (4:11)

Well, it highlights Trump's perspective on driving the, the US Manufacturing infrastructure. US Leadership in all key areas. And semiconductors is a very important area, especially that intel makes semiconductors for the defense industry.

Bloomberg Interviewer (4:28)

Interesting. Okay, so does it make the, the defense business stronger?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (4:34)

Absolutely. Hey, there's no better partner. One number one partner. I don't. Well, it could be a tie. U.S. government and Nvidia. Okay, so let me best partners get.

Bloomberg Interviewer (4:45)

Let me, let me ask this question a different way than Ivan. And that's about where intel would be right now if the US Government had not made that investment. Would this be a completely different picture? Would it have been a completely different quarter?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (4:58)

Well, yeah, I think this has helped. I think this removes concerns, balance sheet concerns and allows the company and the CEO to focus on business. A partnership with Nvidia is great and partnership with the US it opens up doors. They're back working with Apple. They're going to be working with everybody. And I think you're going to see intel as a major contender as a semiconductor foundry, semiconductor manufacturer to take on Taiwan Semiconductor.

Bloomberg Host (5:30)

So, okay, going back to intel under pressure in the aftermarket. We continue to track the share price. I think down about 4 or 5% as we speak. The forecast for the first quarter, top and bottom line, disappointing. At the same time, it's Talking about the CEO saying demand is quite strong. Says the chip maker missed a lot of opportunities, says production yields not up to his standards. And then he goes on to say making or intel. Says the company making good progress in 14A production on track for volume production in 2028, has multiple engineering engagements on 14A. Help me understand what that means.

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (6:07)

These are different chips. The 14A, the 18A that day and the announcements that they made earlier this month at the cbs, they got their latest semiconductors on track to go into production to meet huge demand. Demand for all semiconductors is outstripping supply. There's in fact concerns of memory shortage and processor shortage. So they got the demand wind is that is a tailwind. And they are back to innovating and developing and working winning customers and working with key, you know, computer manufacturers, key hyperscaler, you know, cloud service providers. And I think that they got a tremendous tailwind. The stock ran up a lot. It went from 20 to 55. Even if it pulls back to 45, you know, it's a buying opportunity because I think that long term they are going to be back. I mean, I don't think even be back to their former glory. I think they are going to be one of the world's leading semiconductor developers, designers and manufacturers.

Bloomberg Host (7:14)

So the Foundry services division, their factory unit revenue of about four and a half billion. It was a gain of about 3.8%, Ivan, from the year before. It currently relies on almost exclusively, as you know, intel product divisions for orders. It's looking to expand beyond that. That is that crucial for the company's future growth?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (7:37)

It's crucial, but that is the opportunity to work with everybody because you got to realize that most of the other semiconductor companies, even in video, Apple, all of the companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon that want their own processors, Qualcomm, they're all virtual manufacturer. They don't actually manufacture. They outsource to companies like Taiwan Semiconductor and hopefully companies like intel to manufacture their processors.

Bloomberg Interviewer (8:04)

You know, is the U.S. the U.S. is at least from an investment perspective, things have kind of quieted down a little bit since this summer. But are there any other companies, particularly companies within your universe that you follow that could see in your view an investment by the U.S. government?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (8:24)

You know, that I don't know. The other companies that I like in the semiconductor sector are Nvidia and Qualcomm. And you know, Nvidia is pretty flush.

Bloomberg Interviewer (8:34)

Yeah, they don't need. So I don't think they could, they could make an investment in the US Government.

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (8:39)

Yes, I really think it was great how it turned around after the meeting with Trump and Tan that Trump wrote a check and and also we have a lot of government incentives to to build semiconductor manufacturing capacity here.

Bloomberg Host (8:59)

Yeah.

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (9:00)

We have projects in Arizona, projects in Ohio. So ideally the US could be the semiconductor manufacturing capital for the world.

Bloomberg Host (9:11)

So in terms of going back to and you right. Rightfully so. Ivan point out the run up that we've seen in Ivan in Ivan shares in intel shares. You know the information put out a story and it says Intel's forward EBITDA multiple has lifted to 20 times highest level since 20. Well above the 12 and a half times at which TSMC currently trades. This is what I was trying to get to before with our simulcast. I was talking market caps but it has to do with valuation. Intel now pricier than tsmc. Does that make sense?

Ivan, Chief Investment Officer at Tigris Financial Partners (9:42)

Well, I always say I wish we could solve the mysteries of the stock market by dividing two numbers like cash flow or even P E. Stocks go up for everything that you really can't measure. And this is about Intel's future. So we are going to see if all goes well a huge ramp up in revenue in an expansion in margin, an increase in cash and then an increase in profitability. So I think their foundry business will ramp up significantly and as their new processors come to market, revenue and cash flow and profitability will ramp up also ramp up significantly.

Bloomberg Host (10:19)

Yeah, Lipouton saying, you know, intel faces an execution challenge. We are laser focused as a team to improve that. To be candid, it's just our execution that needs to improve. Ivan.

Bloomberg Interviewer (10:29)

Fine.

Bloomberg Host (10:29)

Seth, great stuff as always, so appreciate it. He's of course chief investment officer over at Tigris Financial Partners joining us on Intel.