OpenAI proposed a 5% government stake worth 42.6 billion dollars, part of a plan pushing AI firms to share equity through a public fund.
OpenAI has offered the Trump administration a 5% equity stake in the company as part of a wider plan that would push major artificial intelligence firms to hand government a share of their ownership through a sovereign wealth style fund. The proposal, first reported by the Financial Times, would value OpenAI's slice at roughly 42.6 billion dollars.
At a Glance
- OpenAI proposed a 5% stake to the federal government, worth about 42.6 billion dollars based on its 852 billion dollar valuation.
- CEO Sam Altman discussed the idea with President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
- The plan would ask Anthropic, Google and Meta to contribute similar 5% stakes into a fund modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund.
- Any such arrangement might need congressional approval, according to CNN.
- Senator Bernie Sanders favors a separate plan seeking 50% public ownership of top AI firms.
How the Stake Would Work
Altman's framework would route equity from OpenAI and rival firms into a government administered vehicle similar in spirit to Alaska's oil revenue fund, which pays yearly dividends to residents. The idea is that instead of oil money, AI generated profits would eventually flow to the public. Neither OpenAI nor the White House has responded publicly to requests for comment on the details.
Why Altman Is Pushing Public Ownership
Altman has framed broad ownership as the fairest way to spread the financial upside of AI, according to CNBC. That view lines up with a plan OpenAI floated back in April, which proposed a fund investing in AI companies and returning proceeds to Americans who otherwise hold no stock market investments at all.
h2>Quick Facts- OpenAI's post money valuation from its March funding round stands at 852 billion dollars.
- Washington already holds a 10% stake in Intel after an 8.9 billion dollar investment last August.
- Both OpenAI and Anthropic have filed confidential paperwork for eventual public stock offerings.
A Government Already Investing in Tech
The Intel arrangement gives this new proposal some precedent. Trump himself said in May that the government should have pushed for a bigger cut of Intel when that deal was struck, a comment that suggests appetite in the administration for even larger equity positions in strategic industries.
Regulatory Pressure Is Already Mounting
The stake proposal lands as federal scrutiny of AI companies intensifies. OpenAI delayed the full rollout of its GPT 5.6 model last week after a request from the government. Anthropic, meanwhile, had briefly cut off foreign nationals from its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models over national security concerns before the government lifted those restrictions this week.
The Sanders Alternative
Not every lawmaker sees Altman's plan as ambitious enough. Sanders has proposed transferring 50% of equity in leading AI companies to a public fund, complete with government board seats, voting power and a universal dividend paid out to Americans. Whether Congress moves on either version remains an open question, and with Anthropic, Google and Meta yet to signal any willingness to join, the shape of any final arrangement is still far from settled.
