Free special report
Washington Is an Investor Now: Inside the Government's Forty-Company Portfolio
In sixteen months the federal government went from a veto over one steel company to announced or completed stakes in roughly forty, built from converted grants, loans with warrants and Pentagon preferred stock. How the deals work, how the stocks behaved, where the buying follows a pattern, and what the critics get right.
40companies with an announced or completed federal stake, per Cato's October 23 count
$20.47the government's price per Intel share; the stock closed at $91.69 on October 20
+211%Trilogy Metals' close the day Washington bought 10% of it
Free
Special report
Washington Is an Investor Now
Inside the Government's Forty-Company Portfolio
AI Stock Movers · October 2026 · 7 sections
What’s inside
- Washington now holds stakes in roughly forty companies, assembled in sixteen months with no formal fund and no single ledger
- Four deal structures do the work: converted grants, loans with warrants, Pentagon preferred stock and contingent interests
- The stocks move the day the news lands, and the smaller the company the bigger the move; what happens after is uneven
- The buying follows three conditions: a grant program to convert, a supply chain through China, a contractor that needs capital
- Critics on the right and the left are testing the program's legal footing, and a midterm a week away could change the rules
Contents
- How We Got Here: From a Golden Share to Forty Companies
- How the Stakes Are Built
- What the Stocks Did
- Where Washington Buys: The Pattern
- The Critics' Case
- The Honest Risks
- What to Watch
“A federal stake is a signal about where federal money and federal attention are going, and the market prices that signal in a single session.”
Facts, sourcedEvery number in the report carries a numbered source you can open yourself (27 in all).
No ticker teaseThe report names no stock and sells nothing. It explains where the money is moving and why.
Read in 13 minutes7 short sections, a what’s-inside summary and a what-to-watch list.