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The Trump administration has made unprecedented equity investments and obtained other stakes in at least 10 companies over the past year.
Many are in critical mineral companies as the White House plots a strategy to directly back mining companies to build a domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on China.
But the investments also include chipmakers and possibly a nuclear reactor company. In the case of U.S. Steel, the administration has taken a governance stake rather than a direct economic interest.
The number of investments is extraordinary outside of wartime or an economic crisis, said Scott Lincicome, a trade lawyer and a researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute.
