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Kevin Hassett on CNBC: Government's 10 Percent Intel Stake and a Possible Sovereign Wealth Fund

August 25, 2025 · CNBC Television · 0:07:19

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett joined CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the announcement that Intel agreed to give the U.S. government a 10 percent stake. Hassett pushed back on the word ’taking,’ explaining, as he stated it, that under the CHIPS Act the government had decided to give Intel a great deal of money, that President Trump and Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke with Intel about its progress and the hurdles it had to clear, and were not particularly happy with that progress — so Intel will get the CHIPS money but, in exchange, the government gets equity.

Hassett emphasized that the equity is non-voting, so there will be no government intrusion into Intel’s business, and called it, as he stated it, more like a down payment on a sovereign wealth fund of the kind many countries have. Asked whether CEOs should expect more such deals, he said this is a very special circumstance given the massive CHIPS Act spending, but that the President has made clear since the campaign that he would like the U.S. to build a sovereign wealth fund, so at some point there will likely be more transactions in this or other industries — ‘it’s possible,’ as he stated it.

He argued that taxpayers previously received nothing when the federal government gave money away, and that now they get a little equity instead of watching the money disappear. He also noted the government already holds most of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that the President, led by Bill Pulte, Howard Lutnick, and Scott Bessent, is studying what to do with that equity, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The interview is the administration’s fullest early defense of the Intel equity deal — a template-setting moment in which a free-market White House argues that industrial subsidies should henceforth buy taxpayers a stake.

Scoreboard watch

Flagged for the scoreboard editor: Hassett confirmed the U.S. government took a 10 percent non-voting equity stake in Intel in exchange for CHIPS Act funds, as he stated it on CNBC; no verdict is given here.

Sources: CNBC Television, “NEC Director Kevin Hassett on Intel deal: It’s possible government will take stake in more companies”, 2025-08-25 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-08-25). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.