What happens when your shareholder is Uncle Sam? It’s a question that U.S. corporations and investors are asking as the Trump administration acquires stakes in for-profit companies, breaking with decades of free-market economic orthodoxy.

The latest deals involve a firm helping develop a remote copper and zinc mine in Alaska and another company with a lithium mine in Nevada. Much of the world’s lithium, which is essential for battery production, is processed in China. The U.S. government last year extended a $2.3 billion loan to Lithium Americas, which is building a lithium mine and processing plant. Now the Trump administration wants to convert that loan into an equity stake as a way to accelerate the domestic production of critical minerals, Reuters reported recently.

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