The US government dolls out a lot of money on grants that are given to companies to develop new disruptive technologies. NASA gives out 19 Billion in grants and The Department of Defense has a grant budget of $575 Billion.
When a company receives these grants there is nothing the government. Sure, if the company creates jobs or tax revenues that could benefit the citizens; but with automation and tax loop holes, in reality not much is actually being recovered. This would be more ok if the beneficiaries were entrepreneurs building their corporations, in reality it is large companies who benefit the most. These big companies have the resources to apply to multiple grants, resources that start-ups don’t have
Imagine a tech startup that applies for and receives three rounds totaling $5M. In the current system the government would not receive any equity in the venture. However, if that money came from a Venture Fund the fund would take equity. Assuming just NASA took equity for their money rather than just giving it away, NASA would turn their $19B into about $60B over the term of the fund, assuming the normal rate of return of 3X.