In an open letter to President-elect Joe Biden, Intel CEO Bob Swan pressed the incoming administration to take steps to invest in emerging technologies and empower U.S. manufacturing.

After briefly congratulating Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Swan urged the new administration to address four main concerns that he argued would enrich the lives of Americans and protect the interests of U.S. technology companies.

However, it should come as no surprise that U.S. investment in any of the areas identified by Swan in the letter would benefit Intel, which has a diverse portfolio touching each in one way or another.

"Artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and edge-to-cloud computing are critical components in government collection and analysis of data, diagnostics, treatment, and vaccine development," Swan wrote of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic has clearly demonstrated the divides between the haves and have not, particularly where education, remote work, and broadband access are concerned, Swan added.

"It is critical to expand investments in broadband connectivity, particularly to lessen the impact of COVID on the underserved and in communities of color," he wrote.

On the issue of U.S. manufacturing, Swan called on the incoming president to protect American interests threatened by foreign competitors subsidized by their governments.

In doing so, Swan cited a statistic from the Semiconductor Industry Association — a lobbyist group — that states that the U.S. accounts for 12% of global semiconductor production capacity, while Asia accounts for more than 80%.

The Semiconductor Industry Association has actively pushed the U.S. government to meet foreign subsidies paid to rival chipmakers in kind.

The group has proposed $37 billion in subsidies to support the construction of domestic semiconductor fabs, research funding, and aid for states seeking to woo manufacturers, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal in June.

Turning to infrastructure, Swan encouraged the incoming Biden administration to invest in smart infrastructure designed to make cities, power grids, and communications faster, more efficient, and more cost effective.

"Upgrades to infrastructure must not only handle the technology of today, but spur domestic development of the technologies of tomorrow," he wrote.

One such technology identified by Swan as critical was 5G.

"Widespread deployment of advanced 5G telecommunications networks will fuel efficiencies for businesses in all industries and enable more U.S. innovation," he wrote.

Finally, Swan called on Biden to take steps to prepare young people to fill the roles of a high-tech workforce, while also ending Trump-era immigration restrictions that have made it difficult to hire workers from abroad.

"The U.S. has welcomed global talent for decades and should continue to support immigration programs needed by Intel and other high-tech companies to operate in the U.S.," he wrote.

And on the topic of employment, Swan committed to doubling the number of women and under-represented minorities in senior leadership at Intel.

Swan's letter comes at a time when Intel is facing stiff competition from rival chipmakers in the data center and cloud space, areas responsible for more than half of the company's quarterly earnings.

AMD's second-generation EPYC processors continue to steal away market share from the chip giant, while chipmakers like Marvell and Ampere have steadily gained support among cloud providers seeking higher core counts and lower thermal design power (TDP).

Intel is unique among chipmakers as it is one of the few that not only designs but fabricates its own chips. This has helped the chipmaker achieve performance advantages over its competition in the past, but no longer. Companies like TSMC and Samsung have pushed past the chipmaker in recent years, bringing 7- and 5-nanometer chips to market years ahead of Intel.

During the company's second-quarter earnings call, Intel admitted that its forthcoming 7-nanometer process had been delayed to late 2022 or early 2023. By that time, TSMC aims to have 3-nanometer chips in production, putting Intel's rivals — many of which rely on the Taiwanese chip fabricator — more than two generations ahead.

The increased competition and the loss of Apple as a key customer in the consumer market — a vertical that has helped to prop up slumping data center revenues since the start of the pandemic — led to a dismal third quarter of 2020 for Intel, which saw the company's net income decline by nearly 30%.