After years of Republicans branding Democrats socialists, his administration took a 10% stake in Intel, a “golden share” with veto power over U.S. Steel, a $400 million stake making the government the largest owner of a rare-earth miner, and a 15% cut of Nvidia and AMD chip sales to China. Republican Senator Rand Paul called it “a step towards socialism,” and a prominent conservative host called it “actual socialism, happening by a Republican administration.” As of this week the government portfolio spans 30 companies, from Intel to a fresh round of chipmakers pressed to hand over equity as a condition of CHIPS Act funding; even the libertarian Cato Institute notes “how unremarkable government ownership is becoming.”
SourcesRand Paul (R), CNBC · WSJ & National Review call it nationalization (Cato) · GOP criticism (The Hill) · Now 30 companies (Yahoo Finance) · The $874M letters of intent (Commerce/NIST) · Equity as a condition of funding (Fox Business)
