US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday that senior Pentagon officials are "considering" whether the United States should acquire stakes in major defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin.

The cabinet member revealed in an interview that the US government is interested in acquiring such stakes, just days after the government purchased a 10% stake in Intel for approximately $9 billion.

Lutnick was asked whether the Trump administration would repeat this move with other companies that do business with the government.

"Oh, there's a terrible discussion about defense," Lutnick responded.

He said that most of Lockheed's revenue comes from federal contracts, making it essentially a division of the US government.

"But what economic sense does this make? I'll leave that question to my Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense."

"These people are working on this, they are considering this."

According to Defense News' 2024 rankings, Lockheed is the world's highest-revenue defense company. Other top US contractors include RTX, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Boeing.

President Trump's move to acquire a partial stake in the troubled chipmaker Intel represents a significant escalation of his efforts to achieve economic goals through increasing government control over the private economy.

Trump said Monday that he would be making similar deals "all day long."

Lutnick said Friday that Trump's agreement with Intel "strengthens America's leadership in semiconductors, which will boost our economic growth and help ensure America's technological superiority."

However, the move has drawn fierce criticism, including from some conservatives who warn that Trump's actions violate free market principles and pose risks to both Intel and the economy.

"The most immediate risk is that Intel's decisions will increasingly be driven by political rather than commercial considerations," Cato Institute economist Scott Lincicome wrote in a column.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky wrote in a post, "If socialism is the government owning the means of production, isn't the government owning part of Intel a step toward socialism?"