Washington Has Quietly Built A Stock Portfolio That Nobody Can Say How Big It Is: Report

• The U.S. government reportedly owns equity in Intel, MP Materials, U.S. Steel and quantum firms.
• Stakes are shared by four agencies; only the Development Finance Corporation has a clear legal right to hold equity.
• Intel’s value on Commerce’s books has skyrocketed from $8.9 billion to $42 billion but is absent from any federal budget document, according to the report.

The U.S. government has reportedly quietly acquired a portfolio of equity stakes across major American companies, but no agency keeps a consolidated ledger of what it owns.

The holdings include a stake in chipmaker Intel (INTC), a $400 million investment in rare-earth miner MP Materials, a “golden share” held in U.S. Steel as a condition of the sale to Nippon Steel, and stakes in several quantum computing companies, according to Fortune.

The report stated that the positions are split between at least four federal agencies. Seventeen through Commerce, seven through Defence, six through the Development Finance Corporation, and two through Energy. Only the Development Finance Corporation, established by Congress in 2018 to finance projects abroad, has clear statutory authority to hold equity. Agencies report equity interests “in different ways” based on the legal authority behind each stake, a Treasury spokesperson told Fortune.

INTC stock closed down over 7% on Friday. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment around INTC remained in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone, while chatter around it shifted to ‘high’ from ‘extremely high’ levels over the past day.

Intel Is The Biggest Stake

According to the report, Commerce appears in Intel’s filings from August 2025 as a shareholder with a warrant and stock agreement covering 433.3 million shares priced at $20.47 per share. The stake is passive, said the report, without a board seat, and some third of the shares are still in escrow pending Intel's progress on a Pentagon chip programme. Intel's prior $2.2 billion CHIPS Act grant had clawback provisions that were removed, the report said.

Accounts held in the name of President Donald Trump began buying Intel shares in March, months after the announcement of the stake sent the stock soaring, ethics filings showed separately, Fortune reported. No insider trading has been alleged so far, and the White House has allegedly said his assets are held in a trust managed by his children.

No Budget Line For Equity

Research cited showed federal budget rules treat equity purchases as one-time outlays with little mechanism to track returns. Consequently, Intel's stake of $8.9 billion to $42 billion does not appear to be reflected in any federal budget document, the report said.

Before, the government had equity at scale, the report stated, through the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Programme, which had a statutory inspector general and congressional oversight. None of that infrastructure is in today’s portfolio, the report said.

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