
In short
- OpenAI has decided to give the US government a 5% stake in the amount of $42.6 billion, based on its value of $852 billion by March 2026, according to the Financial Times.
- Sam Altman pitched the idea directly to President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and wants Anthropic, Google, and Meta to contribute to a similar role.
- The talks follow a month of government ramping up on AI releases at the border, including delays to GPT-5.6 and a temporary ban on advanced Anthropic models.
OpenAI has been in talks with Donald Trump’s administration about giving the US government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported. reportHe mentions two people who know the issues well. At OpenAI The cost of $ 852 billion from its March earnings, the sector is worth about $42.6 billion.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is framing this as democratizing the AI economy — the best way to ensure that Americans share in the industry’s growth. He raised the idea directly with President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to the FT.
Financial structures like the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state fund established in 1976 to invest in excess oil revenues and provide annual dividends to state residents.
The goal doesn’t stop at OpenAI. Altman says he wants other major US AI developers – Anthropic, Google, Meta – to give a matching 5% to the government through the same vehicle. None of these companies have expressed interest in joining so far.
OpenAI introduced GPT-5.6 In the past few days, the White House Office of the National CyberDirector has called for the public to set limits as officials develop an experimental approach to limit AI. This was the second government intervention this month—Anthropic ended most of June closing on Mythos 5 and Fable 5 is under emergency cargo control, the Department of Defense called the company a “supply chain threat,” before access was restored this week.
OpenAI has been more helpful than Anthropic when it comes to its dealings with the US government, signing partnerships where Anthropic has refused.
Equity has become a favorite tool for management in managing professional relationships. The government took a 9.9% stake in Intel last August, paying $8.9 billion to convert CHIPS Act funds into shares at $20.47 each—responsibility it is now more than $50 billion. AMD and Nvidia have agreed to pay 15% of their revenue to China for export licenses. Trumpet he said in May they had to negotiate a major stake in Intel.
The FT characterized the talks as tentative and preliminary, adding that any plan would need to be approved by Congress.
The deal, if successful, would be the first time Washington has a stake in a private AI company. For OpenAI – analyzing IPO privacy and research from a consortium of 42 state attorneys general – this partnership could be useful.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who met with Altman in recent weeks push the bill which would require the largest AI companies to contribute 50% of their profits to the government fund, the money to be paid to the American people as a direct payment. Both OpenAI and Anthropic filed for bankruptcy in their IPOs, meaning that any share that could be linked to the government would lead to the dilution of ownership that comes with a public float.
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