Trump Administration weighs taking equity stakes in defense contractors, Lutnick tells CNBC

[Missile launch at night. The elements of this image furnished by NASA.]
Elen11/iStock via Getty Images

Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LMT]) +1.5% in early trading Tuesday after U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnick told CNBC that the Trump administration is "thinking about [https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/26/trump-pentagon-equity-stakes-in-defense-contractors.html]" whether to acquire equity stakes in major defense contractors and other industries.

"There's a monstrous discussion about defense," Lutnick said when asked if the Trump administration could make similar arrangements to its recent deal to obtain a 10% stake in Intel with other companies that do business with the government, including in defense.

Lutnick singled out Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LMT]), calling the company "basically an arm of the U.S. government."

"I'm going to leave that to my Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense," Lutnick said. "But I tell you what, there's a lot of talking that needs to be had about how do we finance our munitions acquisitions."

Among other top U.S. defense contractors: RTX (RTX [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/RTX]) +1.5%, Boeing (BA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BA]) +1.5%, Northrop Grumman (NOC [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NOC]) +0.8%, General Dynamics (GD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GD]) +0.5%.

Lockheed (LMT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/LMT]) amassed $71B in FY 2024 total revenues, up 5% Y/Y, and the government accounted for ~73% of its net sales.

ETFs: (BATS:ITA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ITA]), (PPA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PPA]), (NYSEARCA:XAR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/XAR]), (SHLD [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SHLD]), (DFEN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DFEN])

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* ITA: Buy To Prepare For A World On The Brink [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4814410-ita-buy-to-prepare-for-a-world-on-the-brink]