U.S. Will Receive ‘Golden Share’ in Nippon Steel Deal

The U.S. government is planning to participate in the planned “partnership” between U.S. Steel and its Japanese rival Nippon Steel, Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said on CNBC on Tuesday.

Mr. McCormick said that as part of a national security agreement that the companies will sign with the Trump administration, the federal government will get a so-called “golden share” in the deal. As a result, the administration will have a say in who is appointed to the company’s board from the United States.

On Friday, President Trump said that he was favoring a $14 billion “investment” by the Japanese giant in U.S. Steel, without disclosing any ownership details. The president had previously said he opposed Nippon Steel’s outright acquisition of the American manufacturer. U.S. Steel is headquartered in Pennsylvania, a politically important state that voted for Mr. Trump in 2024.

Mr. McCormick did not expand upon how the arrangement might work and the companies have not disclosed any details of the investment.

Golden shares typically refer to special stakes the government takes in companies that are ailing or in particular need of government attention, like General Motors during the 2008 financial crisis. The United States doesn’t typically take shares in publicly traded companies. When it does, it’s usually because it has provided some type of financial assistance, like a bailout, and wants to protect taxpayer money.

The arrangement sparked immediate concern.

“It makes no sense for the United States to take a stake in it,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the president of the American Action Forum, said in an interview. The conservative group criticized the Biden administration for raising national security objections to Nippon’s takeover, arguing that it posed no risk to the United States.