Bars over time
Federal Grants to For-Profit Companies
Grant obligations to for-profit recipients, with and without Amtrak, $ billions, federal fiscal years
All for-profit recipients · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 3 years
Excluding Amtrak · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 3 years
Faint bars: the projected periods. Whiskers: the range about two in three outcomes land in. A projection, not a promise.
USAspending.gov: grant obligations (block, formula and project grants, cooperative agreements) to Business recipients (small businesses and other for-profit organizations), net of deobligations, by federal fiscal year. Amtrak, a federally chartered for-profit corporation, is reported in this group. Obligations are commitments, not cash paid out. The newest fiscal year still rises as late reports arrive. Contracts, loans and tax credits are not grants and are not included.
How much the federal government pays companies in grants, as opposed to contracts. Amtrak takes a large share in recent years, so the second bar leaves it out.
What this chart reads
- Federal Grants to For-Profit Companies (Annual)as “All for-profit recipients”latest 2025-09-30
- Federal Grants to For-Profit Companies Excluding Amtrakas “Excluding Amtrak”latest 2025-09-30
Sources
Federal Grants to For-Profit Companies (Annual). Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), award search API: spending over time and spending by awarding agency, grant award types 02 to 05, recipient type Business. Federal award data is a U.S. government work (17 U.S.C. 105), public domain. Source: USAspending.gov.
Federal Grants to For-Profit Companies Excluding Amtrak. Source: USAspending.gov (U.S. Department of the Treasury), award search API: spending over time and spending by awarding agency, grant award types 02 to 05, recipient type Business. Federal award data is a U.S. government work (17 U.S.C. 105), public domain. Source: USAspending.gov.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.