WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Liberal U.S. Senator

Bernie Sanders on Wednesday threw his support behind President

Donald Trump's plan to convert U.S. grants to chipmakers,

including $10.9 billion for Intel ( INTC ), into government stakes in the

companies.

"If microchip companies make a profit from the generous

grants they receive from the federal government, the taxpayers

of America have a right to a reasonable return on that

investment," Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with

Democrats, said in a statement to Reuters.

The awards were part of the 2022 Chips and Science Act,

which sought to lure chip production away from Asia and boost

American domestic semiconductor output with $39 billion in

subsidies.

But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now looking into

the government taking equity stakes in embattled Intel ( INTC ) and other

chipmakers in exchange for the grants, sources told Reuters on

Tuesday, as the Trump administration seeks "equity" in return

for "investments."

The unusual alignment between Sanders and President Trump on

government ownership stakes in private companies highlights a

marked shift by Trump toward policies of state intervention in

the economy that are typically associated with the left.

Since Trump took office for a second time in January, he

agreed to allow AI chip giants Nvidia ( NVDA ) and AMD to sell

AI chips to China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving

15% of revenues from the sales.

The Pentagon is set to become the largest shareholder in a

small mining company to boost output of rare earth magnets. And

the U.S. government negotiated for itself a "golden share" with

certain veto rights as part of a deal to allow Nippon Steel to

buy U.S. Steel.

Liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren, however, who has supported

the government taking a stake in Chips Act award recipient

companies in the past, was not ready to give Trump any credit

for keeping large corporations in line. "Donald Trump seems to

have stumbled on an idea that I pushed years ago to promote

corporate accountability," she said in a statement to Reuters.

"The president just saying he wants the public to have a

stake in a major company isn't the same as having a real

strategy to rein in stock buybacks, onshore jobs, and support

long-term economic growth in America."

Sanders and Warren had proposed an amendment to the Chips

Act that would have forbidden the Commerce Department from

granting a Chips Act award without the Treasury Department

receiving a warrant, equity stake or senior debt instrument

issued by the recipient company.

"I am glad the Trump administration is in agreement with the

amendment I offered three years ago," Sanders said. "Taxpayers

should not be providing billions of dollars in corporate welfare

to large, profitable corporations like Intel ( INTC ) without getting

anything in return."

Much of the funding for Chips Act award recipients such as

Micron, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co ( TSM )

and Samsung has not been disbursed.