The Trump administration has invested roughly $26.7 billion across 30 equity or quasi-equity deals since January 2025, according to Fortune and the Council on Foreign Relations, marking an aggressive pivot toward direct government ownership of private companies. The portfolio spans semiconductors, rare-earth minerals, quantum computing, and defense contractors—but it exists in a legal and budgetary gray zone, scattered across at least four federal agencies with no consolidated public ledger.
The largest holding is a 9.9% stake in chipmaker Intel, now worth $42 billion, which the Department of Commerce acquired by converting federal CHIPS Act grants into equity. The portfolio also includes a $400 million investment in rare-earth miner MP Materials to weaken China’s grip on magnet supply chains, a retained “golden share” in U.S. Steel as a condition of its sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel, and stakes in quantum computing startups announced in a single week by the Commerce Department.
The strategy reflects a departure from decades of U.S. industrial policy. Where previous administrations used grants, loans, and subsidies, the Trump administration is now taking direct ownership stakes—what Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, called “a down payment on a sovereign wealth fund,” according to Fortune. The move aims to secure supply chains for critical sectors deemed essential to national security, from semiconductors to rare-earth elements.
Yet the portfolio operates without the transparency or oversight that accompanied the last major government equity holding. During the 2008 financial crisis, the Troubled Asset Relief Program invested $700 billion in financial firms under a statutory special inspector general who filed quarterly reports to Congress, plus a congressional oversight panel and standing audits, according to Fortune. Even that apparatus was judged insufficient: TARP’s own inspector general told Congress in 2009 that taxpayers weren’t being told what recipients were doing with their money.
Today’s portfolio has none of that apparatus. The stakes sit across the Department of Commerce (17 deals), Defense (seven), the Development Finance Corporation (six), and Energy (two). Only the Development Finance Corporation has clear statutory authority to own equity, under a 2018 framework designed for development deals abroad. Some holdings, like nine quantum computing agreements, remain ambiguous term sheets rather than finalized stakes. The most complete public accounting is maintained by the Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank, according to Fortune.
Federal budget rules designed for grants and loans treat equity purchases as immediate outlays, with little mechanism to recognize what comes back. The Intel position’s rise from $8.9 billion to $42 billion appears in no budget document, according to research by the Council on Foreign Relations cited in Fortune. Private company stakes like those in Vulcan Elements and xLight generate no SEC filings at all.
Public skepticism is building. A CNBC poll found that about half of voters believe it isn’t appropriate for the government to own stakes in companies. The administration, however, has signaled this is only the beginning of a broader shift toward government equity ownership as a tool of industrial policy.
Sources
- Fortune — core reporting on the $26.7 billion portfolio, Intel stake details, lack of transparency, and TARP precedent
- Council on Foreign Relations — portfolio tracking, budget rules analysis, and timeline since January 2025
- CNBC — voter polling on government equity stakes
