President Joe Biden's top national security officials have reportedly been crafting a plan that would allow the country to invest in emerging technologies, energy and critical links in the supply chain.
The project has been in the works for months but didn't surface until Friday, the day after former President Donald Trump floated a similar idea for an investment fund to finance "great national endeavors," according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the effort.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Daleep Singh, have reportedly been holding weekly brainstorming sessions, including with economic experts.
Planning documents have been circulated among White House staffers and key agencies, but many critical details remain unclear, including the structure, funding source and strategy of the potential fund, Bloomberg said.
The administration officials involved in the project are eager to formalize it before Biden leaves office and Trump's remarks at the Economic Club of New York could lead to bipartisan support, Bloomberg said.
The plan would create something like the sovereign wealth funds run by nations including Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Norway, or the independently managed funds created by Canada and Australia.
It would aim to counter the grip on critical materials and emerging technologies held by America's adversaries, including China, which has made major investments in natural resources, Bloomberg reported.
It could also be used to support U.S. companies that are solvent but short of cash so they can pursue capital-intense endeavors, including shipbuilding, geothermal and nuclear fusion research and quantum cryptography, Bloomberg noted.
In a Thursday interview with Bloomberg Television, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson said he supported the idea of creating a government investment pool larger than Norway's $1.7 trillion fund.
"It would be great to see America join this party and instead of having debt, have savings," Paulson said. "It would be, over time, larger than any of the existing funds."
But Jared Bernstein, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said he'd be "very wary of getting involved in any kind of wealth fund."
It's "certainly something I haven't talked about in meetings I've been in," he told Bloomberg TV.
