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OpenAI is considering offering the US government a 5 percent ownership stake to ease tensions with the Trump administration and mitigate public concerns surrounding artificial intelligence, according to a report from the Financial Times. CEO Sam Altman has proposed that providing the government with a financial interest in the company could be an effective way to share the potential benefits of AI.
Sources familiar with the discussions indicated that Altman initially presented the idea to Trump during early 2025. The suggested 5 percent stake could be valued at approximately $42.6 billion based on OpenAI’s recent funding round, which valued the company at $852 billion.
The negotiations are reportedly in preliminary stages, and similar arrangements would need to be established with other US AI companies. It remains uncertain if those companies would accept such terms.
This proposal comes amid the Trump administration’s proactive stance on AI, which has impacted competitors like Anthropic. The Pentagon recently classified the company as a supply chain risk, and the administration implemented export controls on its latest models, leading to market withdrawal and raising questions about the US’s position in the global AI landscape.
As interest in AI grows, public officials are increasingly looking to use policy measures to capture and redistribute the wealth generated by the technology. Under Trump’s guidance, the government has already acquired a 10 percent stake in Intel and has reportedly requested that Nvidia and AMD allocate 15 percent of their revenues from AI chip sales to China to the federal government. Furthermore, figures like Senator Bernie Sanders have suggested that AI constitutes a public resource, advocating for various policies including a proposed 50 percent tax on the stock values of leading AI firms to create a sovereign wealth fund.
