President Donald Trump wants the U.S. government to own a piece of Intel, less than two weeks after demanding the Silicon Valley pioneer dump the CEO that was hired to turn around the slumping chipmaker.

A US government plan to take a stake in Intel Corp. would give the ailing chipmaker a powerful backer, even if a bigger challenge still lies ahead: finding enough paying customers.

After the Trump administration confirmed a rumor that the US is planning to buy a 10 percent stake in Intel, US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came forward Wednesday to voice support for the highly unusual plan, finding rare common ground with Donald Trump.

The U.S. chipmaker has struggled to keep pace in the AI market alongside competitors like Nvidia. Softbank has agreed to buy Intel common stock at $23 per share.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC the U.S. government wants a stake in Intel in exchange for CHIPS Act grant money promised under Biden.

Intel is getting a $2 billion investment in common stock from SoftBank, which is betting big on the AI revolution.

Intel is in talks with other large investors to receive an equity infusion at a discounted price, CNBC reported on Wednesday, just days after the struggling chipmaker got a $2 billion capital injection from SoftBank Group .

After months of turbulence, Intel Corp. bulls are finally being rewarded for their patience. But the stock’s sudden rebound comes with a worrying side effect: a valuation so high its most recent precedent is from the dot-com era more than two decades ago.