US Commerce Secretary Lutnick cites Intel stake when pressed on $5,000 payment plan

When asked how the government plans to fund $5,000 payments to every American adult, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had a surprisingly specific answer: Intel. The response ties together two of the Trump administration’s most ambitious economic gambits. One involves the federal government becoming the largest shareholder in America’s most storied chipmaker. The other involves cutting checks to roughly 200 million adults, a tab that would easily exceed $1 trillion. From grants to equity: the Intel deal In August 2025, the administration converted approximately $8.9 billion in grants originally allocated under the CHIPS and Science Act into an equity stake of roughly 9.9% to 10% in Intel Corp. That single transaction made the US federal government Intel’s largest shareholder. The move was a sharp departure from how the Biden administration structured CHIPS Act funding. Under the previous approach, the government distributed grants to semiconductor companies to incentivize domestic manufacturing. No strings beyond the spending requirements, and certainly no ownership stake. Lutnick has framed the shift as correcting what he considers a flawed strategy. His pitch: instead of handing ...