Artificial Intelligence

Report: OpenAI Considers Giving US Government 5% Stake

Should the public own a stake in AI companies or would government equity kill American innovation?

Published JUL 2

Report: OpenAI Considers Giving US Government 5% Stake

Story

Above: Sam Altman at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21, 2025. Image credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Facts

A Financial Times report claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has discussed a proposal with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to give the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, valued at roughly $42.6 billion based on OpenAI's $852 billion March valuation.
Quartz
Newsmax
The proposal, described as conceptual and in early stages, would also call on other major U.S. AI firms — including Anthropic, Google and Meta — to cede similar equity stakes to the government, though a report indicates that Anthropic has not been party to the discussions thus far.
CNBC
Guardian
CNA
The structure Altman has outlined would channel equity into a vehicle modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-owned fund seeded with oil revenues that pays annual dividends to residents. Any such deal could require an act of Congress to implement.
marketwatch.com
Reuters
Newsmax
Altman has also spoken to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has advocated for a government share of AI companies, proposing legislation that would impose a 50% equity transfer from major AI companies into a sovereign wealth fund, with proceeds distributed to Americans as a universal dividend.
Forbes
Semafor
The proposal comes as Washington has increased scrutiny of advanced AI models. Anthropic suspended foreign access to its most advanced models last month under a government export control order, and OpenAI delayed the wide release of its GPT-5.6 model at the administration's request.
Reuters
CNN
The U.S. government acquired a roughly 10% stake in chipmaker Intel in Aug. 2025. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidential initial public offering paperwork and are preparing to list on public markets.
Quartz
EuroNews

Sources Split

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The Spin

Pro-government narrative

AI was built on the collective work of millions of people. Giving the public a real ownership stake in these companies is the only way to ensure AI's massive gains benefit everyone and make the public a real partner in the AI revolution. A sovereign wealth fund backed by AI equity is the kind of democratic accountability this industry has been dodging.

Fortune

Bernie Sanders US Senator for Vermont

Axios

Government-critical narrative

This would hand politicians a backdoor into controlling what these systems say and produce. Bureaucracies stagnate markets, reward cronyism and freeze out the next generation of startups. America beat every rival by keeping government out of the boardroom, and now taxpayers could foot the bill for these mega-companies.

R street