OpenAI is in preliminary discussions with the Trump administration about handing the US government a 5% equity stake, according to a Financial Times report confirmed by Bloomberg, Forbes and CoinDesk on July 2. Chief executive Sam Altman has framed the idea as the fairest way to spread the gains from advanced AI to the American public.
An Alaska-style public wealth fund
Under the proposal, other US AI companies - not only OpenAI - would be asked to grant Washington similar equity, which would then be pooled into a fund modelled on the Alaska Permanent Fund. That vehicle, established in 1976 to invest surplus oil revenues, was worth roughly $91.2 billion as of May and pays annual dividends to Alaskan residents. A 5% slice of OpenAI's ~$852 billion valuation would be worth about $42.6 billion at today's marks.
Still 'conceptual', but tied to the IPO clock
Altman has raised the idea directly with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the FT said. Discussions are described as "conceptual" and would likely need an act of Congress. OpenAI confidentially filed draft IPO paperwork with the SEC in June; advisers are said to be weighing a delay into 2027.
Political tailwind
Trump last year signed off on a 10% US stake in Intel and this June told reporters he was hearing "concepts where pieces could be given to the American public." Senator Bernie Sanders has separately pushed a more expansive version calling for a 50% government stake in leading AI companies.
The others in the fund's crosshairs
The FT report explicitly points at OpenAI's biggest rivals - Anthropic, Google DeepMind and Meta - as potential contributors, along with chipmakers Nvidia, AMD and Micron that have ridden the AI boom. It follows Washington's growing use of export controls, most recently on Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5, and its voluntary AI standards for frontier models.
Reporting based on coverage from the Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes and CoinDesk.