President Donald Trump’s Shark Tank supporter, Kevin O’Leary, has torn into the U.S. government for taking a stake in Intel.
The Trump administration has indicated that the deal with the technology company marks the start of a broader strategy by the U.S. government to play a bigger role in private business.
O’Leary unloaded Monday, saying the Intel decision betrayed the U.S. private sector by giving life to a failing company that should be allowed to die.
“I abhor this idea. I really do,” O’Leary raged, when asked about the Intel deal on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “What has made America so great for 200 years is the government stays in its lane, and the private sector does what it does so successfully.”
Trump first revealed on Friday that the U.S. would take the 10 percent stake in Intel. He said he asked Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan about it during a White House meeting, and Intel agreed.
“We let dead old companies die in our version of capital markets. Intel should have been sold for car parts three years ago,” O’Leary said. “I do not want to invest in it as an investor, and I have no interest in taking my tax dollars and giving it to a company that has performed so miserably.”
Trump on Monday went off on critics as “stupid” after he was slapped down as “communist” for the Intel deal.
“I PAID ZERO FOR INTEL, IT IS WORTH APPROXIMATELY 11 BILLION DOLLARS. All goes to the USA,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Why are ‘stupid’ people unhappy with that? I will make deals like that for our Country all day long,” he kept going. “I will also help those companies that make such lucrative deals with the United States States [sic].”
In a statement on Friday, Intel said the U.S. government had agreed to make an $8.9 billion investment in the company’s common stock as it builds its semiconductor expansion in the U.S..
The company indicated that the equity stake would be funded by the remaining $5.7 billion in grants previously awarded, but not paid out to Intel, under the bipartisan U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, which was passed by President Joe Biden, as well as $3.2 billion awarded to the company in the Secure Enclave program.
Intel said the government investment would not include board representation or other governance or information rights. The government also agreed to vote with the board of directors on matters requiring shareholder approval “with limited exceptions.”
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett indicated on Monday that the move would be part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration. He described it as “more like a down payment on a sovereign wealth fund.”
“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, and so I’m sure that at some point, there’ll be more transactions if not in this industry in other industries,” Hassett said on CNBC.
When pressed to clarify if the public should expect the government to take more equity stakes in businesses around the country, Hassett said, “It’s possible, yeah, that’s absolutely right.”
He insisted that the government shares would not have any voting rights, and the government would “stay out of it.”
Before the deal was announced, Senator Rand Paul was one of the few Republicans to blast what represents a dramatic shift away from the party’s stance for decades.
“If socialism is government owning the means of production, wouldn’t the government owning part of Intel be a step toward socialism?” Paul posted on X. “Terrible idea.”
Former GOP Senator Jeff Flake praised Paul for speaking out against it and said other Republican senators should do the same.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson also slammed the U.S. taking a stake in Intel as “socialism with an R next to its name.”
“So many of you were opposed to Mamdani wanting to seize the means of production in New York City, but are totally fine with Trump’s Commerce Secretary wanting the U.S. government to become the largest shareholder of Intel,” he claimed.
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