OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is in early discussions with the Trump administration about giving the US government a 5 percent equity stake in the company. The proposal would extend to other leading AI firms including Google, Meta, Anthropic and xAI. Any agreement would require congressional approval and remains far from certain.
Sources told the Financial Times that the talks are in their initial stages. Altman has argued that a public stake would allow Americans to share in the financial gains from AI development.
The idea draws on models like the Alaska Permanent Fund, which distributes returns from natural resources to residents. OpenAI has suggested similar mechanisms to distribute AI-related wealth directly to citizens.
Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a much larger 50 percent stake through a one-time tax on AI company stock. He has described the OpenAI figure as too low to ensure meaningful public oversight.
Officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have been involved in the discussions. The move comes amid new government reviews of frontier AI models before public release.
