Lutnick wasn’t quite correct — Lockheed said it got 73% of net sales from the US government in 2024 — but the point stood. It offered some indication of where President Donald Trump’s administration may be headed next after a series of interventions including taking a 10% stake in Intel Corp and a 15% cut of Nvidia Corp’s revenue from sales of some chips to China.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sparked a minor rally in shares of defence contractors with his suggestion that the US might take ownership stakes in some of them, even as industry analysts warned the idea poses serious conflict-of-interest concerns.
“Oh, there’s a monstrous discussion about defence,” Lutnick said Tuesday on CNBC. He singled out Lockheed Martin Corp, saying the company gets 97% of its revenue from federal contracts. “They are basically an arm of the US government,” he said.
