Meet the wealthy new investor taking equity stakes in defense companies: The Pentagon

Few business partners are more powerful and well-funded than the Pentagon.

Still, the Trump administration's accelerating push to take direct financial stakes in private defense and critical minerals companies — a divisive strategy among Republicans on Capitol Hill — raises a host of political, ethical, legal, financial and even long-term strategic questions for the U.S. military.

It is a vivid example of how rapidly and fundamentally the American defense sector is transforming in real time, as the U.S. eyes unorthodox and controversial steps to light a fire under a domestic industrial base that has fallen behind China in key areas.

The Trump administration has taken direct equity stakes in more than 20 private companies, according to a tally compiled by the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.