ChatGPT creator OpenAI is reportedly discussing giving the U.S. government a 5% stake in the company, in an apparent attempt to improve relations with President Donald Trump’s Administration amid political pressures on American artificial intelligence companies.
The Financial Times reported Thursday, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the talks, that CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial stake in the firm is the best way to share the upside of AI. An unnamed person familiar with the matter told Axios the proposal is in its very early stages.
The arrangement, according to the FT, would also involve other U.S. AI firms. Altman and other OpenAI executives reportedly suggested that these developers allot 5% of their equity to a sovereign wealth fund-like system, though it’s unclear if any of them would agree with OpenAI's proposal.
An unnamed source speaking to Reuters said the Trump Administration and Anthropic have not discussed the government taking stakes in the firm. TIME did not immediately hear back from Google and Meta when sought for comment.
Altman had shared the idea with senior Administration officials since the start of Trump’s second term and has reportedly ramped up conversations with them in recent weeks. The FT said among those Altman was in active talks with about public ownership were Trump himself, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The second Trump Administration has previously taken stakes in private companies. In August last year, the government obtained a 10% stake in Intel Corp. after investing $8.9 billion in the American chipmaker’s stock. It also took an equity stake in IBM and other quantum-computing companies.
The White House also did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment on the OpenAI proposal, though Trump has previously toyed with the idea of the U.S. government owning a stake in AI firms: “There’s something very i
