OpenAI Wants to Give Trump’s Government 5% Equity Stake

OpenAI has floated an unusual proposal to the Trump administration: give the U.S. government a direct ownership stake in America’s most valuable artificial intelligence companies.

According to a report by the Financial Times, the ChatGPT maker has discussed allocating a 5 percent equity stake to the federal government and has suggested that other leading U.S. AI firms consider similar arrangements. The proposal comes as Washington intensifies scrutiny of advanced AI systems, weighing both national security risks and whether ordinary Americans should benefit financially from the industry’s explosive growth.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. OpenAI and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.

The idea reflects a broader debate in Washington over how to ensure that the immense wealth expected to be generated by artificial intelligence is shared beyond Silicon Valley investors.

Last month, President Donald Trump said his administration was exploring ways to give the public a stake in leading AI companies amid concerns that Americans could be left out of the sector’s future profits.

OpenAI has previously proposed creating a “public wealth fund” that would invest in AI companies and distribute returns to citizens. Rival Anthropic has advanced a similar concept, describing a “digital dividend” funded by taxes on the AI industry.

The Financial Times, citing two people familiar with the discussions, reported that OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman and other executives proposed that major U.S. AI companies contribute 5 percent of their equity to a vehicle modeled after Alaska’s Permanent Fund, the state-owned investment fund financed by oil revenues that pays annual dividends to residents while supporting the state’s budget.

According to the newspaper, Altman has discussed the proposal with Mr. Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He has also spoken with Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, in recent weeks.

The discussions come during a period of heightened government involvement in the AI industry.

Last week, OpenAI delayed the full public release of GPT-5.6 at the request of the U.S. government. The postponement followed an order requiring Anthropic to suspend foreign access to its frontier AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, over national security concerns. Those restrictions were lifted on Tuesday.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have confidentially filed paperwork for initial public offerings in the United States, setting the stage for what could become two of the most closely watched public listings in the technology sector.

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