OpenAI Proposes 5% stake to Trump Administration to Ease Washington Pressure

Washington, July 2: OpenAI has proposed handing the US government a 5% stake in the company as the artificial intelligence startup seeks to defuse mounting political pressure over the industry’s power and profits, according to CNBC and Reuters. 

A 5% holding would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, CNBC noted, after OpenAI closed a record-breaking funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial interest in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the talks, according to CNBC. 

Reuters reported that Altman and other OpenAI executives had suggested leading U.S. AI firms allot 5% of their equity to a vehicle modelled on the Alaska Permanent Fund, the state-owned corporation seeded with oil revenues that pays annual dividends to Alaska residents. The FT said Altman had discussed the stake proposal with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and had also spoken with Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders in recent weeks, Reuters said. 

Both outlets reported that the arrangement envisions other major U.S. AI companies, including Anthropic, Google and Meta, ceding similar stakes to the government, though it remains unclear whether any of them would agree. Neither the White House nor the companies named immediately responded to requests for comment from CNBC or Reuters, which said it could not independently verify the FT’s report. 

CNBC reported that talks over a possible government stake have been ongoing for more than a year, with Altman first pitching the idea to the Trump administration in early 2025. In April, OpenAI had proposed creating a “public wealth fund” to hold assets tied to AI company growth and distribute the proceeds to the public, a concept Reuters said echoes Anthropic’s own proposal for a “digital dividend” funded by taxes on the AI sector. 

Reuters noted the report comes days after OpenAI delayed the full public rollout of GPT-5.6 at the U.S. government’s request, following an earlier order barring foreign nationals from accessing rival Anthropic’s frontier models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, over national security concerns. 

CNBC noted the Trump administration has previously taken equity stakes in private firms, including a 10% stake in Intel following an $8.9 billion investment last August, as well as positions in IBM and other quantum and critical-minerals companies. Trump said in May he should have sought a larger Intel stake, and has separately called the idea of U.S. ownership stakes in AI giants “a beautiful thing” that would make Americans “partners in this revolution.” 

According to CNBC, OpenAI on June 26 said it confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month, a promising signal for investors who are eager to jump into AI. But the company has repeatedly tried to temper expectations about when it will hit the public markets, writing in a post on X that it “may be a while.” 

Source

• Financial Times, via CNBC and Reuters