Many U.S. voters are skeptical about the government gobbling up ownership stakes in American companies, according to a CNBC survey released Monday.
The new poll found that just 19% of American voters believe it is appropriate for the federal government to own a share of private companies in the U.S., compared to 49% who think it is not appropriate. Meanwhile, 32% of voters were undecided, according to the survey.
CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey from October 2025 showed that 56% of voters thought it was inappropriate for the U.S. government to take a share of a private company, while 13% of respondents thought it was appropriate and 31% said they did not have an opinion.
The poll’s release comes after the Trump administration has announced new investments totaling $26.7 billion across thirty separate deals related to direct ownership stakes since January 2025, according to estimates by the Council on Foreign Relations.
“President Trump was given a resounding mandate by the American people to smash Washington, D.C.’s obsession with consensus orthodoxy that has let Americans down,” White House Spokesman Kush Desai told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “The Trump administration is turning the page on Joe Biden’s economic disaster by implementing traditional free market policies that do work – like deregulation and tax cuts – while rectifying the America Last policies that have Americans behind.”
In August 2025, the administration announced that the U.S. had reached a “historic” agreement to gobble up a 10% equity stake in the California-based chipmaker Intel.
“Intel is excited to welcome the United States of America as a shareholder, helping to create the most advanced chips in the world,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an Aug. 22, 2025 statement. “As more companies look to invest in America, this administration remains committed to reinforcing our country’s dominance in artificial intelligence while strengthening our national security.”
CNBC’s latest poll was conducted from July 8-12 among a nationwide sample of 1,000 registered U.S. voters. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The poll was conducted in collaboration with Hart Research Associates and Public Opinion Strategies.
