The government announced intentions to acquire additional stakes in private companies following a 10 percent takeover of Intel. CHIPS Act funding will be deployed as planned, but some allocations will take the form of minority, nonvoting equity that returns a slice of ownership to taxpayers. Officials described the shares as nonvoting to avoid direct control over operations. The move sparked accusations of hypocrisy from critics who previously warned about state-owned enterprises and generated concerns that even small equity holdings could enable government influence over corporate decisions.
In the past, the federal government has been giving money away lickety-split to companies and the taxpayers have received nothing in return. And so now what's happening with the Intel deal is the CHIPS Act money is going out as planned, but instead of it just going out and disappearing into the ether, the U.S. taxpayers are getting a little bit of equity, Hassett replied,
OK, so we should expect the U.S. Government to be taking more equity stakes in businesses around the country. That is something that if you're a CEO this morning watching us, you should say, OK, the sovereign wealth fund may be coming and trying to effectively buy some kind of equity stake?' CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin asked National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett. It's possible, yeah, that's absolutely right.
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