Three days after the United States agreed to acquire a stake in the chipmaker Intel, President Trump signaled on Monday that he would pursue similar investments in other major companies, describing his new economic strategy as an attempt to “get as much as I can.”
Mr. Trump’s pledge underscored a significant and potentially risky shift in the relationship between government and private enterprise. With a particular focus on powerful computer chips, the White House expressed new fervor for nationalizing certain industries and technologies, in ways that conservatives once may have found unfathomable.
The president’s strategy came into fuller view on Friday, after the administration announced that it would take a 10 percent stake in Intel, a beleaguered technology giant once viewed as the beating heart of Silicon Valley.
The acquisition of Intel’s stock is the most notable intervention in private business since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when the U.S. government stepped in to rescue Chrysler and General Motors from collapse. But it also fits an emerging pattern under Mr. Trump, who has recently tried to extract favorable concessions when corporate leaders have needed his help.
To take over U.S. Steel, the Japanese-based Nippon Steel agreed to grant the U.S. government a “golden share” in the combined company to influence its direction. Mr. Trump also extracted a pledge from chipmakers, including Nvidia, to give the government 15 percent of their revenue from selling powerful computer chips to China, an idea that lawyers in the Commerce Department are trying to figure out how to legally carry out.
On Monday, Mr. Trump said he had proposed to Intel’s chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, that the U.S. government take a 10 percent stake. But Mr. Tan was also facing political pressure in the United States, where the president at one point attacked him and claimed he had ties to the Chinese government.
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The post After U.S. Takes Stake in Intel, Trump Pledges ‘Many More’ Deals appeared first on New York Times.
