Something unusual is happening in corporate America: the U.S. government is buying in. Not as a bailout lender or crisis manager, but as a strategic investor. Washington has started taking ownership stakes in companies tied to semiconductors, rare earth minerals, and steel — industries that sit at the heart of what many are calling the new economic arms race. For the United States, this isn’t about profit. It’s about security and competitiveness. In recent months, the government has quietly acquired pieces of several companies critical to national strength. It now holds a roughly 10% stake in Intel, has invested in MP Materials, a leading rare-earth miner, and recently took a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals, a Canadian firm with major projects in Alaska. It also bought into Lithium Americas, which is developing a massive mine in Nevada to extract the raw material that makes electric vehicles and modern batteries possible.
These aren’t random bets. They’re deliberate moves to secure supply chains, ensure access to essential materials, and reduce dependence on foreign powers — especially China.
While direct equity investments by Washington are rare, they aren’t without precedent. During World War II, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation took ownership positions in hundreds of companies to ramp up industrial capacity for the war effort. Later, during the 1950s and 1960s, the federal government. partnered with private industry to fund aerospace, nuclear power and early computer development — laying the groundwork for much of today’s technology sector. More recently, the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel, has taken stakes in emerging tech firms to support intelligence and national-security innovation and BARDA Ventures, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has “mission-driven equity investments” in biotech / health technology firms to strengthen health security.
The motivation is simple: The United States can’t afford to lose a race that could define the 21st century. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, defense technology — all of it relies on semiconductors, rare earth elements, and steel. These are the building blocks of national power, and without them, we risk falling behind both economically and militarily. Steel production, for example, isn’t just about cars and construction; it’s about ships, aircraft and the backbone of military capability. The same goes for chips — without secure, domestic semiconductor production, the AI revolution could end up happening somewhere else. We learned a painful lesson during the COVID years: relying on overseas factories for critical goods is a vulnerability. When supply chains froze, so did production lines at home. Re-shoring strategic industries is now seen as a necessity, not an option. By taking small but meaningful ownership stakes, the U.S. government is signaling that it doesn’t intend to leave that mission up to chance. For investors, this new approach adds a fresh layer of complexity. Government involvement can spark market enthusiasm — shares of Trilogy Metals tripled almost overnight after the news broke — but it can also blur the lines between profit and policy. When Uncle Sam becomes both shareholder and regulator, politics inevitably enter the picture.
Corporate decisions about dividends, plant locations and supply contracts may start to reflect national priorities as much as shareholder interests. Even so, this broader industrial strategy underscores the scale of what’s at stake. The next few decades will be shaped by nations that control their own resources, technology, and production capacity. These new investments are America’s way of ensuring that leadership doesn’t slip away. For investors, it’s a reminder that understanding the intersection of markets, policy, and technology has never been more important. At Anchor, we are watching this closely on your behalf for investment opportunities. How it plays out in the long term, we will see.
As always, our job at Anchor is to help clients navigate both the headlines and the fine print. If you have questions about how the current environment affects your financial picture, let’s talk.
