Financial Times · Sam Altman · Anthropic · OpenAI · Google · Donald Trump · Decrypt
The proposed structure would model a sovereign wealth vehicle like the Alaska Permanent Fund
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The proposal doesn't stop at OpenAI.
Key facts
- The government took a 9.9% stake in Intel last August, paying $8.9 billion by converting CHIPS Act grants into shares at $20.47 each— a position now worth well over $50 billion
- OpenAI launched GPT-5.6 in limited form days earlier, after the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director asked for a restricted rollout while officials develop a testing framework
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's pitch frames this as democratizing AI's economic upside Anthropic, Google, Meta—to cede a similar 5% to the government through the same vehicle
- OpenAI has been in talks with the Donald Trump administration about handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the discussions
Summary
OpenAI has proposed handing the U.S. government a 5% stake worth roughly $42.6 billion, based on its $852 billion March 2026 valuation, . Sam Altman pitched the idea directly to President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and wants Anthropic, Google, and Meta to contribute similar stakes. The talks follow a month of escalating government intervention in frontier AI releases—including a delayed GPT-5.6 rollout and a temporary export ban on Anthropic's top models. OpenAI has been in talks with the Donald Trump administration about handing the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the discussions. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's pitch frames this as democratizing AI's economic upside Anthropic, Google, Meta—to cede a similar 5% to the government through the same vehicle.