OpenAI discusses giving US govt 5% stake as Trump weighs public share in AI

OpenAI's proposal comes as the Trump administration weighs measures to ensure Americans benefit from profits made by AI companies while increasing scrutiny of advanced models

OpenAI is in discussions with the US government about handing it a 5 per cent stake in the company, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. This comes as artificial intelligence (AI) firms face scrutiny from the Donald Trump administration over the potential misuse of advanced models. The Trump administration is also questioning AI companies on whether they would share their profits with the government.

What is the proposal?

According to the FT report, OpenAI has suggested that other US AI companies may also hand the government similar stakes under the proposal. However, it remains unclear whether the companies would agree to do so.

 

 

The report added that OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman and other executives had suggested that leading US firms allot 5 per cent of their equity to a vehicle similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-owned corporation seeded with oil revenues that pays annual dividends to Alaska residents and helps support the state's budget.

 

Altman has discussed the stake sale with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, FT reported. He has also spoken to Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders in recent weeks.

Trump pushes for public stake in AI firms

Last month, US President Donald Trump had said that he was exploring options to give the public a stake in leading AI companies in response to concerns that individual Americans would not share in the sector's expected profits.

 

Earlier, OpenAI had proposed creating a "public wealth fund" to invest in AI companies and distribute the proceeds to citizens. Anthropic, on the other hand, said it was exploring a "digital dividend," which is defined as payments to Americans funded by taxes on the AI sector.

 

Last week, OpenAI delayed the full public launch of GPT-5.6 at the US government's request. The announcement came after the US government ordered rival Anthropic to suspend access to its frontier AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for foreign nationals over national security risks. The restrictions were removed on Tuesday.

 

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have confidentially filed for US initial public offerings.