OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly discussed the potential government stake with Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
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OpenAI has proposed giving the Trump administration a 5% stake in the company as part of a broader arrangement in which leading U.S. artificial intelligence firms would cede similar equity to the government through a sovereign wealth fund vehicle, according to the Financial Times.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussed the potential government stake with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the FT. Altman has also spoken recently with Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent. Such an equity position would carry an approximate value of $42.6 billion, calculated against the $852 billion valuation OpenAI established when it closed its March funding round.
The framework Altman and his colleagues have sketched out would require major American AI players — Anthropic, Google $GOOGL, and Meta $META among them — to each contribute a 5% equity slice into a government vehicle structured along the lines of the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state-run entity that channels oil revenues into dividends for Alaska residents, the FT reports. It is not clear whether any of those other companies would agree to the arrangement. Any deal might require an act of Congress to implement. OpenAI and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from multiple news organizations.
A proposal OpenAI put forward in April envisioned a dedicated fund that would take positions in AI companies and channel proceeds back to the public, explicitly targeting Americans who hold no traditional market investments.
The latest proposal arrives as AI firms face growing scrutiny in Washington. OpenAI delayed a full public launch of its GPT-5.6 model last month at the U.S. government's request, while rival Anthropic had suspended access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign nationals over national security concerns. The U.S. government lifted those restrictions this week.
Precedent for government equity in private technology firms already exists: Last August, a $8.9 billion commitment to Intel $INTC's common stock gave Washington a 10% ownership position in the chipmaker. Looking back on that deal, Trump remarked in May that the government should have negotiated for more of the company.
Confidential IPO filings have been submitted by both companies, a step that would eventually open their equity to retail investors on public markets.
Sanders has pushed a separate, more sweeping proposal that would transfer 50% of equity in top AI companies into a public fund and grant the government board seats and voting power, with proceeds flowing to Americans as a universal dividend.
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