The U.S. government is converting billions in previously granted funds and pledges into a roughly 10% ownership stake in Intel, making it one of the company's largest shareholders. Officials signaled an appetite for pursuing additional ownership stakes in private firms, with defense contractors named as possible targets due to the government's role as a major customer. Free-market conservatives expressed concern that government ownership could distort corporate decision-making, incentivize politically motivated but financially unsound choices, and harm innovation and competition by creating customers who buy based on political considerations rather than product quality.
Donald Trump has a message for critics who think turning the U.S. government into a major stockholder of Intel is a "socialist" move: More is coming."I will make deals like that for our Country all day long," the president posted on Truth Social after critics piled on, adding later about future ownership stakes: "I want to try and get as much as I can."
Free-market conservatives were already wary of Trump's tendency to interfere in corporate decision-making by, for example, telling Apple where it should make iPhones, or even demanding a cut of Nvidia's sales of chips to China. But the Intel move is a startling defiance of Republican orthodoxy that says governments shouldn't try to pick corporate winners and losers and risk messing things up as owners by rewarding executives for politically smart but financially stupid decisions.
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