Trump Has Taken Stakes in These Companies. How Their Stocks Have Fared

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President Donald Trump is exerting an unprecedented amount of control over private companies. So far, that’s working out fine for most investors.

Of six companies where the government has exerted control, four have delivered gains to shareholders, one topping 150%.

Trump in June approved Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel, but only in exchange for veto power over some corporate actions. The Department of Defense bought 15% of rare earths miner MP Materials and a similar deal with Lithium Americas is in negotiations. The government took a 10% stake in Intel Corp. soon after Trump put pressure on its CEO to resign.

The moves are the biggest private sector power grab for the U.S. government outside of major economic crises. The results for shareholders are a mixed bag, but largely positive.

The biggest beneficiaries have been the rare earths miners, whose shares have doubled since news first broke of the government’s potential involvement. Intel’s shares have risen 24% since August’s deal, compared with a 1.8% rise for the S&P 500.

Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, which the White House said would give the U.S. 15% of their revenues from China chip sales, have seen their shares fall. The companies on recent earnings calls have said the deal isn’t finalized, and China in September banned many of the chip sales in any case.

It’s less clear how well the investments will work longer term, and the White House is explicit that it isn’t losing sleep about how its actions impact private shareholders.

“It’s not like we’re trying to set up a hedge fund or something to get an internal rate of return on our Intel investment,” a White House official said. “We want to make sure that if we’re intervening to help an American company that we’re doing so in a way that taxpayers can reap the upside.”

In mid September, the White House used its control over Nippon Steel to nix a company decision to stop processing steel at a U.S. Steel plant in Illinois. After reversing course, U.S. Steel said it had “found a solution” to continue production. A U.S. Steel spokesperson said under the original plan the “plant would have been maintained in case the situation changed, and there would have been no layoffs.”

“For Nippon Steel idling that plant was perhaps a sensible business decision, but for us in the United States…that represents a key loss to our domestic capacity,” the White House official said.

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