Despite the rocky relationship between President Donald Trump and CEO Lip-Bu Tan, the government is reportedly eyeing a stake in Intel.

The deal talks follow President Trump’s public call for the replacement of CEO Lip-Bu Tan over his ties to Chinese businesses.

President Trump had urged CEO Lip-Bu Tan to step down over his past ties with China. But the narrative flipped last week after a highly positive White House meeting

What Intel needs more than new board members is customers for its manufacturing, or “foundry”, arm. They have not been forthcoming, partly because Intel’s chip-design business competes with would-be buyers such as AMD and Nvidia.

The 65-year-old technology and venture capital industry veteran has amassed a fortune worth at least $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which is calculating Lip-Bu Tan’s net worth for the first time.

Shares of Intel ( INTC 3.73%) are soaring this week, up 24.1% as of 3:13 p.m. ET. The spike comes as the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC -0.22%) was up 1%, and the Nasdaq-100 was up 0.5%.

A 10-year Intel employee has officially received sentencing, with the former employee now relocating to France to take up vineyard management.