OpenAI's government stake idea is bigger than it sounds

OpenAI is in early discussions about offering the US government a 5% ownership stake in the company. The Financial Times reported the talks Thursday, citing two people familiar with the conversations. CEO Sam Altman has been pushing the idea with senior administration officials since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term and has picked up the pace of those conversations in recent weeks.

A 5% stake in OpenAI would carry significant value. Based on a March funding round that valued the company at $852 billion, that share would be worth roughly $42.6 billion. The proposal frames the arrangement as a way for the public to share in the financial growth that AI is generating.

Who OpenAI has been talking to about the deal

Altman has discussed the idea directly with Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to the Financial Times. The conversations also touch on whether other major US AI companies might participate in a similar arrangement. Under the proposal, leading AI firms would each set aside 5% of their equity into a structure similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state sovereign fund that pays dividends to Alaska residents from oil revenue.

It is not yet clear whether other companies support the idea. Anthropic said it has not held discussions with the government about the government taking a stake in the firm. Google and Meta had not responded to media requests for comment at the time of reporting. Any deal of this kind would likely require congressional approval to take effect.

Why OpenAI is making this move now

AI companies are operating under growing pressure from Washington. Trump signed an executive order last month giving the federal government up to 30 days to assess the national security risks of new AI systems before they launch publicly. The Commerce Department temporarily blocked foreign users from accessing Anthropic’s Claude models over national security concerns before lifting that block this week. OpenAI also restricted access to its new GPT-5.6 model at the administration’s request, limiting it to a small group of approved partners.

The government has also shown it is willing to take ownership positions in private companies when it sees strategic interest. Last August, the US took a 10% stake in Intel worth $8.9 billion after investing in the chipmaker. The government also took equity in IBM and several quantum computing companies around the same time. Trump told CNBC Thursday that he finds government ownership of private companies to be a fundamentally American idea and pointed to the Intel stake as a model that worked.

What the public ownership idea could look like

OpenAI outlined a version of this concept in an April policy paper, proposing a public wealth fund that would give every American a financial stake in AI-driven growth. Anthropic published a similar idea the following month, calling for accounts that would give citizens direct ownership, with priority going to workers displaced by AI.

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a different but related approach, suggesting a one-time 50% tax on major AI companies’ stock with the proceeds placed into a sovereign wealth fund. Critics of increased government oversight argue the pressure could slow American AI development and give China a competitive opening. The talks remain at an early stage and OpenAI has not commented publicly on the reports.