Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., does a TV interview in the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday criticized the Trump administration’s resolution to take a 10% stake in embattled chipmaker Intel, calling the funding “a step towards socialism.”
Intel announced final month that the U.S. authorities made an $8.9 billion funding in Intel widespread inventory, buying 433.3 million shares at a worth of $20.47 per share, giving it a ten% stake in the corporate. Intel famous that the value the federal government paid was a reduction to the present market worth.
Rand mentioned authorities possession is “a bad idea.”
“It’s always a mistake to say, ‘Well we have this one bad policy, all right, we’ll tolerate a little socialism, but we don’t want anymore,” Paul advised CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “I think it’s a bad idea.”
President Donald Trump mentioned on Truth Social final month that the federal government’s stake in the chipmaker is a “great Deal for America, and, also, a great Deal for INTEL.”
Trump has taken an more and more heavy hand in the non-public sector, elevating concern amongst conservative lawmakers like Paul, who’ve lengthy opposed huge authorities. In August, the Trump administration mentioned the federal government would take 15% of sure Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices chip gross sales to China. The Pentagon purchased a $400 million fairness stake in rare-earth miner MP Materials. It additionally took a “golden share” in U.S. Steel as a part of a deal to permit Nippon Steel to purchase the U.S. industrial large.
Among essentially the most vocal supporters in Congress of Trump’s Intel proposal has been Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont. Sanders, a longtime and vocal Trump critic, advised news outlets final month that, “Taxpayers should not be providing billions of dollars in corporate welfare to large, profitable corporations like Intel without getting anything in return.”
But Rand mentioned it is not good to contain the federal government in the free market.
“I worry that the free market movement, the movement that was a big part of the Republican Party, is being diminished over time,” Rand mentioned.
WATCH: Sen. Rand Paul on U.S. government’s stake in Intel: It’s a step towards socialism
