The Trump administration has made unprecedented equity investments and obtained other stakes in at least 10 companies over the past year.
Many are in critical mineral companies as the White House plots a strategy to directly back mining companies to build a domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on China.
But the investments also include chipmakers and possibly a nuclear reactor company. In the case of U.S. Steel, the administration has taken a governance stake rather than a direct economic interest.
The number of investments is extraordinary outside of wartime or an economic crisis, said Scott Lincicome, a trade lawyer and a researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute.
And the administration’s portfolio could keep growing. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC last August that the government could take stakes in major defense suppliers, such as Lockheed Martin.
In the past, the U.S. has taken temporary stakes in companies in the context of bailouts, said Peter Harrell, who served as the senior director for international economics under President Joe Biden.
“With these companies, it’s a very different thesis,” Harrell said. “The government is kind of acting as a strategic investor to put capital into these companies so that these companies can achieve both a commercial return but also, at least in theory, some kind [of] national purpose.”
U.S. Steel
President Trump secured a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as a condition for approving Nippon Steel’s acquisition of the historic manufacturer.
The golden share is a governance stake that gives the president veto power over key business decisions. It is not a direct economic stake in U.S. Steel.
The president can veto decisions to close, idle or sell U.S. Steel plants. He can also block U.S. Steel from changing its name, moving its headquarters from Pittsburgh or relocating the company outside the U.S.
U.S. Steel stopped trading on the NYSE in June 2025 after becoming a subsidiary of Nippon.
MP Materials
MP Materials is a critical minerals company headquartered in Las Vegas that operates the only commercial rare earth mine in the U.S. at Mountain Pass in California. It has a market value of more than $10 billlion.
The Defense Department struck a landmark deal with MP in July 2025 that includes an equity stake, a price floor and an agreement to buy a portion of future output.
The Pentagon agreed to buy $400 million of preferred stock and is entitled to a warrant allowing it to purchase additional shares. MP said in July that exercising these options would give the Pentagon a 15% stake, positioning it as the company’s largest single shareholder.
Intel
The Commerce Department took a 10% stake in Intel in August 2025, buying 433.3 million shares of the chipmaker’s common stock at $20.47 per share.
Funding for the investment came from $5.7 billion of government grants under the CHIPS Act and $3.2 billion in federal awards under a program to make chips secure.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC last August that the stake is non-voting and does not include governance rights.
Lithium Americas
Lithium Americas is a critical minerals startup with no revenue that is developing a lithium mine in Humboldt County, Nevada called Thacker Pass. It has a $1.5 billion market cap.
The Department of Energy took a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and a 5% economic stake in its joint venture with General Motors to develop Thacker Pass. In exchange, the department agreed to defer $182 million of debt service on a $2.3 billion federal loan over five years.
“If we’re going to push out part of the repayment into later years, then the administration would like a very small stake of equity to create essentially a cash buffer and eliminate some risk on behalf of taxpayers,” a Trump administration official told CNBC in September.
Lithium Americas is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE.
Trilogy Metals
Trilogy Metals is another critical minerals startup with no revenue. It aims to develop a mining project in Alaska called Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects using a controversial, 211-mile-long Ambler Road to extract copper and other materials.
President Donald Trump approved permits for to construct Ambler Road in October and the administration invested $35.6 million in the project. The investment makes the U.S. government a 10% shareholder in Trilogy with warrants to purchase an additional 7.5% of the company.
Trilogy is also headquartered in Vancouver and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NYSE.
USA Rare Earth
USA Rare Earth is yet another critical minerals startup that is also not generating any revenue yet. It is developing a magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma and plans to build a rare earth mine at a deposit called Round Top in Texas. USA Rare Earth has a $4.6 billion market capitalization.
The Commerce Department issued a letter of intent on Jan. 26 to provide USA Rare Earth with a $1.3 billion loan and $277 million in federal funding.
In exchange, USA Rare Earth will issue 16.1 million shares of common stock and 17.6 million in warrants to the U.S. The government will have an 8% to 16% stake in the company, depending on whether the warrants are exercised.
CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC in an interview that the government is “taking an economic interest in the business, not a governance interest.”
Westinghouse
Westinghouse is a private nuclear reactor developer. It is owned by publicly traded Cameco, a Canadian uranium miner, and Brookfield Asset Management.
The Commerce Department signed a deal with Cameco and Brookfield in October to finance the construction of Westinghouse nuclear plants worth $80 billion.
Under the deal, the government is granted a participation interest in Westinghouse and can require an initial public offering on or before January 2029 if the company’s value rises above $30 billion.
The government could become an 8% shareholder in Westinghouse under that scenario, Cameco Chief Operating Officer Grant Isaac said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call in November 2025.
Vulcan Elements
Vulcan Elements is a private startup based in Durham, North Carolina. Vulcan entered into a $1.4 billion partnership with the U.S. government and ReElement Technologies to build a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain.
Vulcan will build a 10,000 metric ton magnet facility in the U.S. It will receive a $620 million loan from the Pentagon, $550 million of incentives from the Commerce Department and raise $550 million in private capital.
Under the deal, Commerce will receive a $50 million equity stake in Vulcan and the Pentagon gets warrants in the company.
XLight
XLight is a private company headquartered in Palo Alto, California that is developing free-electron lasers to manufacture semiconductors.
The Commerce Department in December issued a letter of intent to provide xLight with up to $150 million in federal incentives. In exchange, Commerce would receive a $150 million equity stake in xLight.
L3Harris
L3Harris Technologies is a defense company with more than $65 billion market cap.
It announced a proposed partnership with the U.S. government in December in which the Pentagon would invest $1 billion in its rocket motor business, whose motors are used in missile systems.
Under the terms of the investment, L3Harris would launch an initial public offering of its missile business in the second half of 2026, at which point the Pentagon’s $1 billion investment would convert into common equity of the spun off division.