President Trump announced Friday that Intel agreed to give the federal government a 10 percent stake in the struggling company in exchange for money previously allocated under the Biden-era CHIPS and Science Act.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Hassett made clear the government does not have voting shares in the company, “so there’s not going to be government intrusion into the business of Intel.”
He added, “It’s more like a down payment on a sovereign wealth fund, which many, many countries have.”
Hassett described the Intel deal as a “special circumstance” but said the public should expect similar types of deals with companies going forward.
“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 said. “So I’m sure that, at some point, there’ll be more transactions — if not in this industry, in other industries.”
“In the past, the federal government has been given money away, lickety-split, to companies, and the taxpayers have received nothing in return.”
The Hill’s Sarah Fortinsky has more here.
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