Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that President Donald Trump’s administration may be interested in acquiring a stake in other industries after making a deal with Intel last week.
Bessent made the statement during a Wednesday appearance on “Mornings with Maria” with host Maria Bartiromo. She pressed Bessent about the $11 billion deal with Intel and whether similar deals are coming down the pipeline.
“President Trump is going to be the only president in modern times who creates assets for the American people rather than debt. And, we looked he saw that Intel had been given grants and wanted to know why the American taxpayer wouldn’t participate in the upside. So there’s $11 billion of immediate value. And I think there’s a very good chance here that it could be much more,” Bessent said.
“Are you considering taking stakes in further semiconductor companies, I mean, with the president? Consider taking a stake in Nvidia,” Bartiromo asked.
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“I don’t think Nvidia needs financial support. So, you know, that that seems, not on the table right now, but could there be other industries, where you know, that we’re reshaping, something like shipbuilding, that. Sure. There could be things like that. And these are critical industries that we have to, we have to be self-sufficient in the United States,” Bessent responded.
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The official went on to say that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses in America’s supply chains that must be addressed, arguing it was almost a “beta” test for a “kinetic war.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| INTC | INTEL CORP. | 24.36 | +0.01 | +0.04% |
| NVDA | NVIDIA CORP. | 179.91 | -1.86 | -1.02% |
“Think about it, 80-90% of the precursor pharma products are made overseas. And that’s just unacceptable because, you know, as we saw during Covid, the manufacturing countries will keep it for themselves,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are split on how they feel about the White House’s move to acquire equity in Intel.
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“The U.S. federal government should not be buying companies,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., one of the architects of the CHIPS Act, similarly told Fox that he does not think the administration should use this strategy repeatedly.
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“It was not the intent of the law, you know, an equity stake to be taken,” Young said. “But it was the intent to ensure that we enhance our economic security and national security, which is the objective that they are trying, that the administration is trying to advance.”
Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report
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