U.S. Converts Grants Into Stakes to Secure Critical Supply Chains

The U.S. administration is shifting from traditional subsidies to taking equity positions in mining and semiconductor firms to tighten domestic supply chains and reduce reliance on China.

Officials have pursued or taken stakes across key projects: roughly 8% in Critical Metals, which controls the Tanbreez rare earths deposit in Greenland; a 5% holding in Lithium Americas and an additional 5% in its Thacker Pass joint venture with General Motors, securing a domestic source of battery-grade lithium; and about 15% in MP Materials, owner of the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California, where the Department of Defense will become the largest shareholder to foster domestic processing and magnet production.

Discussions are also underway with USA Rare Earth, which is developing a mine in Texas and a neo-magnet plant in Oklahoma slated to come online in 2026. Separately, a roughly 9.9% stake in Intel underscores the strategy’s semiconductor dimension, aimed at supporting onshore advanced manufacturing capacity.

Taken together, these direct investments represent a more interventionist industrial policy designed to secure feedstocks and manufacturing for EVs, defense systems and advanced computing.