The U.S. authorities may take fairness stakes in additional firms sooner or later because the Trump administration appears to construct a sovereign wealth fund, Nationwide Financial Council (NEC) Director Kevin Hassett stated Monday.
President Trump introduced Friday that Intel agreed to offer the federal authorities a ten % stake within the struggling firm in change for cash beforehand allotted below the Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Hassett made clear the federal government doesn’t have voting shares within the firm, “so there’s not going to be government intrusion into the business of Intel.”
“It’s more like a down payment on a sovereign wealth fund, which many, many countries have,” Hassett continued.
Hassett described the Intel deal as a “special circumstance” however stated the general public ought to anticipate related sorts of offers with firms going ahead.
“The president has made it clear all the way back to the campaign, that he thinks that in the end, it would be great if the U.S. could start to build up a sovereign wealth fund,” Hassett stated. “So I’m sure that, at some point, there’ll be more transactions — if not in this industry, in other industries.”
Co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Hassett on whether or not CEOs watching the interview ought to say to themselves, “Okay, the sovereign wealth fund may be coming and trying to effectively buy in some kind of equity stake.”
“It’s possible, yeah. That’s absolutely right,” Hassett responded. “In the past, the federal government has been given 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.”
Trump on Monday equally prompt extra offers could possibly be forthcoming.
“Yeah, there will be other cases, or if I have that opportunity again, I would do that. Then you do have stupid people say, ‘Oh that’s a shame,’” Trump stated. “It’s not a shame. It’s called business.”
