The US government could assume capital participations in more companies in the future, potentially through a fund of American sovereign wealth, according to one of President Donald Trump’s main economic advisors.
The comments of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hasett, occurred days after the United States assumed a participation of almost 10% in Intel. The Government assured a piece of the manufacturer of semiconductors with money destined for subsidies as part of the Law and Science Law, approved under the Biden Administration.
Speaking about Intel’s new position, Hasset told CNBC: “It’s like an initial payment of a sovereign wealth fund, which many countries have.” The governments of Europe, Asia and the Middle East use these funds to make investments in companies and other financial assets.
The federal government has taken property bets in private companies before, but under extraordinary circumstances, such as during the 2008 world financial crisis.
Hasset said that Intel’s investment was a “very, very special circumstance due to the large amount of expenses of the chip law that was coming to Intel.”
He added: “So I am sure that at some point there will be more transactions, if not in this industry, in other industries.”
The Chips Law was established as a way for the government to provide financing and capital to foreign and national companies that manufactured semiconductors and related products in the United States.
The Americans and the US economy received the benefit of more than $ 200 billion in private capital investments since the law was promulgated, according to the Foreign Relations Council. Many companies also announced plans to create new manufacturing and construction works of the US.
Hasset said previously that the money was “leaving and disappearing in the ether.”
He also said: “We are not absolutely in the business of choosing winners and losers.” However, the United States is now the largest individual shareholder in Intel. The administration has also taken a “golden participation” in the United States steel as part of the approval of its merger with Japan Nippon Steel. Trump also said he negotiated with the CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, to take a cut of 15% of the revenue of the chips manufacturer of some chips sold in China. Trump also has a similar agreement with the AMD rival chips manufacturer.
After Hassett’s interview, Trump took Truth Social to say: “I paid zero for Intel, it is worth approximately 11 billion dollars. Everything goes to the United States.” He also said that “it would help those companies that make such lucrative agreements with the United States.”
It was not clear why the president said that the United States did not pay anything for participation. The Government bought 433.3 million Intel shares at $ 20.47 each, which is equivalent to $ 8.9 billion.
Trump has also pressed companies to change course in key products, such as when he announced that Coca-Cola would add cane sugar to an American version of their homonym product.
Trump has also threatened companies such as Amazon, Mattel, Hasbro and Walmart with reprisals for hiking prices as a result of its wide global tariff regime.
The president’s intervention in the private industry has caused generalized criticism, even of the Republicans. The former UN ambassador to Trump, and a former member of the Boeing Board, Nikki Haley, said in X: “Intel will become a proof case of what he should not do.”
After the CNBC interview, NBC News asked Hassett about the creation of a sovereign wealth background.
“As we acquire things like Intel, then there is a kind of matter of where it goes and sustains it for the treasure of the United States. And if the United States treasure has more of those things, that is beginning to seem like a background of sovereign wealth, if an official sovereign wealth background is established, it is another question,” said Hasset.
“But it has no precedents that the United States has capital” in private companies, he added.
The United States took capital bets in private companies during the global financial collapse of 2008 and 2009.
Then, the United States bought assets with problems and took capital bets in JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG and other systemically important companies to stabilize the global financial system.
Trump has expanded his power over the business world, fueled by his opinion that the US economy is like “a department store, and we establish the price.”
“I meet the companies, and then I established a fair price, which I consider to be a fair price, and they can pay it, or do not have to pay it,” Trump said in an April interview.
