OpenAI in Talks to Offer US Government 5% Equity Stake
OpenAI is currently engaged in negotiations with the US government regarding the potential transfer of a 5 percent equity stake in the company, as reported by the source on Thursday. This arises as artificial intelligence companies encounter examination from the Donald Trump administration regarding the possible abuse of sophisticated models. The Trump administration is enquiring of AI companies regarding their willingness to share profits with the government. According to the report, OpenAI has indicated that other US AI companies might also offer the government comparable stakes under the proposal. However, it remains uncertain whether the companies would consent to such an arrangement.
The report indicated that OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, along with other executives, proposed that prominent US companies allocate 5 percent of their equity to a fund akin to the Alaska Permanent Fund. This state-owned corporation, funded by oil revenues, distributes annual dividends to residents of Alaska and contributes to the state’s budgetary support. Altman has engaged in discussions regarding the stake sale with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to sources. He has also engaged in discussions with Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders in recent weeks.
Last month, US President Donald Trump indicated that he was considering avenues to provide the public with a stake in prominent AI companies, addressing apprehensions regarding the potential exclusion of individual Americans from the anticipated profits of the sector. Previously, OpenAI suggested the establishment of a “public wealth fund” aimed at investing in AI enterprises and allocating the returns to the populace. Anthropic, conversely, indicated that it was investigating a “digital dividend,” which is characterised as payments to Americans financed by taxes levied on the AI sector.
Last week, OpenAI postponed the complete public launch of GPT-5.6 at the request of the US government. The announcement followed the US government’s directive to rival Anthropic to halt access to its frontier AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for foreign nationals due to national security concerns. The restrictions were lifted on Tuesday. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have submitted confidential filings for initial public offerings in the United States.
