The US government has quietly built ownership stakes in more than 30 private companies, and whether that's good or bad depends entirely on how the power gets used.

• Since last June, the government went from owning zero shares in private companies to holding equity in 30 firms tied to minerals, chips, quantum computing, nuclear energy, and steel.
• In some cases the government is now the biggest shareholder, and many of these stakes were pressured out of companies wanting subsidies, contracts, or permits.
• Supporters say it's fair: if taxpayers hand billions to companies like Intel, they should get equity back instead of giving the money away for free.
• The danger is that the government is now both a shareholder and a regulator, so it could bend rules to protect firms it owns or block their rivals.
• Some deals look more like extortion — such as taking a cut of Nvidia's China chip sales in exchange for approving them — rather than a clean return on investment.

Outlook: The stakes will likely keep growing, and the real fight will be over whether they benefit taxpayers or just hand Trump more leverage over corporate America.