OpenAI has discussed giving the U.S. government a roughly 5% ownership stake in the company, according to a report by the Financial Times cited across outlets including Reuters, Euronews, and The Globe and Mail.
According to Tom's Hardware, chief executive Sam Altman is understood to have raised the idea directly with President Donald Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Reports describe the move as an effort to strengthen ties with Washington and to address public concerns about how the profits from artificial intelligence are shared.
Several outlets, including WION and Quartz, frame the proposal as part of an "AI wealth fund" concept. Tom's Hardware reports that Altman wants every leading U.S. AI lab to pay into a public fund modeled on Alaska's system, in which residents receive dividends from state oil revenue.
The discussions come amid rising government scrutiny of AI firms. According to Tom's Hardware, the talks surfaced just days after Washington delayed OpenAI's GPT-5.6. The Bing News summary notes the idea remains at the discussion stage rather than a finalized deal, and multiple headlines describe it using hedged language such as "weighs," "mulling," and "reportedly."
The reports have also drawn market attention, with outlets such as SiliconANGLE and simplywall.st noting investor interest in AI-related and infrastructure stocks following news of the proposal.
Why it matters: A private company offering a stake to the government is unusual, and it signals how deeply AI firms and Washington are becoming entangled as regulators weigh how to oversee — and how the public might share in — one of the most powerful and profitable technologies of the era.