The U.S. government took a 10% stake in Intel last week, through a deal that will convert funding from the CHIPS Act into partial ownership of the tech company. But President Donald Trump has much larger plans for his government’s takeover of private industry. At least that’s what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested Tuesday during an interview on CNBC.
CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Lutnick about whether he thought it was “fair for America” that government was now taking control of Intel. Sorkin brought up other companies that benefit from U.S. government dollars, asking if they were next.
“Why shouldn’t the U.S. government say, you know what, we use Palantir services, we would like a piece of Palantir. We use Boeing services, we would like a piece of Boeing. There are a lot of businesses that do business with the U.S. government—that benefit by doing business with the U.S. government. I guess the question is, where’s the line?” Sorkin asked Lutnick.
But Lutnick thought that all sounded great. “Oh, there’s a monstrous discussion about defense. I mean, Lockheed Martin makes 97% of their revenue from the U.S. government. They are basically an arm of the U.S. government,” Lutnick said.
Government takeover?
The Commerce Secretary went on to praise the technology that Lockheed has developed, describing the “amazing” technologies that can “knock a missile out of the air” if it’s coming toward you.
“There’s a lot of talking that needs to be had about how do we finance our munitions acquisitions,” Lutnick said. “I think a lot of that is talking and now you have the right people in the jobs, and Donald Trump at the head, thinking about what is the right way to do it. I tell you the way it has been done has been a giveaway.”
Lutnick has previously insisted that the government has no governance role at Intel and isn’t going to tell the company what to do. But Trump tells private companies and institutions what to do each and every day, trying to use his leverage to influence policies right down to who can be hired at universities and what they can teach.
Trump also used an interesting word when posting to Truth Social about the Intel stake: control.
“It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
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