By Alexandra Alper WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Liberal U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday threw his support behind President Donald Trump's plan to convert U.S. grants to chipmakers, including $10.9 billion for Intel,

The Trump administration wants U.S. chipmaker Intel to give the federal government an equity stake to receive $8 billion via the CHIPS and Science Act.

A $2 billion investment represents a roughly 2% stake, ranking SoftBank the fifth-largest shareholder of Intel, while a reported 10% stake by the U.S. would be worth about $10.4 billion as of Monday’s share price.