OpenAI has proposed giving the US government a stake of up to 5 percent in the company, according to a Financial Times report, in what would be an unprecedented arrangement between a frontier AI lab and the state that regulates it.
The stake, valued at approximately $42.6 billion (roughly 27 billion pounds) based on OpenAI’s estimated $852 billion valuation, would be placed into a “Public Wealth Fund” structure that chief executive Sam Altman first described in an April 2026 policy document titled “Distributing the Gains from AI.” The fund would distribute returns, dividends or eventual IPO proceeds, to American citizens, bypassing the corporate tax system.
A voluntary equity donation
The proposal is structured as a voluntary equity donation, not a tax. OpenAI would issue or reserve shares for the fund without diluting existing investors like SoftBank. Altman has argued that the corporate tax framework undercounts AI’s societal footprint and that direct wealth-sharing through a public fund is a more transparent mechanism.
By offering the stake voluntarily, OpenAI sidesteps the stalled congressional debate over AI-specific taxation and gives the executive branch a way to accept wealth-sharing without new legislation. CNBC reported that discussions between OpenAI and the White House have been underway for more than a year, with Trump administration officials reportedly interested in the model.
Avoiding onerous regulation
The proposal comes as OpenAI faces intensifying scrutiny from multiple directions. The Trump administration has signaled interest in equity stakes across strategic sectors, citing its 10 percent stake in Intel as a precedent. At the same time, the company is preparing for an eventual public-market exit and faces pressure from regulators, export-control agencies, and a fragmented congressional AI policy landscape.
A formal government ownership stake could make OpenAI look more durable in Washington, reducing the risk of hostile procurement rules or antitrust action. But governance experts have flagged the conflict of interest inherent in the US government acting as both regulator and shareholder. Nat Purser, executive director of the Center for AI Policy, told NOTUS: “The problem is that the government would be a shareholder and a regulator at the same time, which creates substantial conflicts of interest.”
A template for the industry
If OpenAI signs the deal, Altman has indicated he hopes other frontier labs will follow. Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI and Meta AI would then face pressure to match the arrangement or explain why not. That would fundamentally change the financial architecture of the AI industry, introducing public equity into a sector that has so far been funded almost entirely by private venture capital and corporate investment.
The talks are still preliminary. No agreement has been signed. But the fact that the proposal has moved from a policy white paper to structured negotiations with the White House signals that both sides see strategic value in aligning AI’s economic upside with the state.
Sources: OpenAI floats giving Trump administration 5 percent cut of AI boom (The Verge, July 2, 2026); OpenAI proposes 5% stake to Trump administration (CNBC, July 2, 2026); OpenAI government stake would reset AI IPO math (Scram News, July 2, 2026)