private company in that it is not owned by the government. Those are the two categories.
Either you’re they’re by the government or they’re by private citizens. being traded on the stock market, or traded privately, or not traded at all makes no difference to them being a private company.
Tesla just got $17 billion from the government, is Musk now owned by the USA government? No.
A coal miner just got laid off work and is collecting his first unemployment check while he looks for new work. Because he got support from the government between jobs, does that mean the government owns him like a slave?
Or perhaps you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about? Yes, that seems to be the case.