This article originally appeared in the Financial Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Jack Mintz, August 22, 2025
The Trump administration has raised eyebrows with reports it’s negotiating a 10 per cent stake in money-losing chipmaker Intel in return for funding provided under the 2022 Chips Act. This is not the only example of Donald Trump lurching into state capitalism. He has also commandeered a “golden share” in Nippon’s acquisition of U.S. Steel that allows him to veto the company’s U.S. production and investment transactions and even obtain majority membership on U.S. Steel’s board.
These interventions raise eyebrows for a good reason. Governments and businesses make bad bedfellows. It’s one thing to subsidize a company and append social requirements, as the Biden administration did with the Inflation Reduction and Chips Acts. It is quite another to become the owner of a public-private mixed enterprise with control over every decision the company makes.
Arguments in favour of mixed enterprises are specious at best. As the OECD notes in a report on improving the performance of state enterprises: “The presence of outside shareholders can have a disciplining effect, reinforcing board independence, increasing transparency and disclosure and controlling the level of State influence in company operations, while driving performance through a more increased focus on maximizing shareholder value.”
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Jack Mintz is the President’s Fellow at the University of Calgary’s school of public policy and a distinguished fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
