The U.S. now owns a big chunk of Intel. That’s a huge deal.

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last month, President Donald Trump announced an unusual deal. Intel, the biggest microchip maker in America, had agreed to give the United States a 10 percent stake in its business. That means the U.S. government is now Intel's largest shareholder — and a major American company is now a partially state-owned enterprise.

This deal has raised a lot of eyebrows. The U.S. government almost never gets tangled up with businesses like this. Some have accused the president of taking a step toward, well, socialism.

But the Intel deal didn’t come out of nowhere. It's actually the latest chapter in one of the most aggressive economic experiments the United States has ever attempted. An experiment that Trump is now taking in a surprising new direction.

On today's show, we unpack the Intel deal. Where did it come from, and what does it say about President Trump’s unconventional approach to managing the economy.

For more:
- The President's Golden Share in U.S. Steel
- Bringing a tariff to a graphite fight
- A controversial idea at the heart of Bidenomics

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This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Keith Romer. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Jimmy Keeley with help from Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.

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0:36.9	Now, on to the show.
0:39.2	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:44.2	A couple weeks ago, we called up Jemesa Alexander.
0:48.1	So I have this theory about the economy, and can I just run it by you?
0:53.0	Yes, please.
0:53.9	I'd love to hear it.
0:55.1	We were hoping that Jamesa could help us think through this major shift that's been happening in the U.S. economy.
1:01.0	Okay, so my theory is that the way you run an economy is maybe not dissimilar to the way that you
1:08.9	organize a really, really good party.
1:12.3	I love that. I love that. I don't think people really think about it that way, but there are
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