US President Donald Trump on Thursday said US chipmaker Intel's chief Lip-Bu Tan should resign immediately, accusing him of having ties with China.

In his Truth Social post, Trump described Lip-Bu Tan as 'highly conflicted'.

"The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately," Trump wrote on social media.

The US President was possibly referring to Tan's alleged investments in companies that the US says are tied to the Chinese military, media reports said.

He further said: "There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!"

Shares in Intel fell more than 3% by midday after the attack from Trump, who has been critical of the firm previously and is preparing to raise tariffs on the chip industry, BBC reported.

In a bid to turn around the company's future, Tan was appointed the tech giant's chief in March.

As per Intel's website, Tan is a longtime technology investor and widely respected executive with more than 20 years of semiconductor and software experiences as well as deep relationships across Intel’s ecosystem.

He formerly served as CEO of Cadence Design Systems from 2009 to 2021  

Tan is a naturalised US citizen who was born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore.