Hong Kong – OpenAI has begun preliminary discussions about giving the US government a 5 per cent stake in the ChatGPT-developer, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the talks.
OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman and other executives proposed that move as part of a broader arrangement under which Washington would hold 5 per cent of each of the leading US AI developers, the FT reported. That might include Anthropic and listed sector leaders Google and Meta Platforms, though it’s unclear if those other firms would agree with the proposal, the newspaper said.
Altman had floated the idea of government stakes in major AI firms with the Trump administration as early as 2025, Bloomberg News has reported. The CEO is arguing that giving the public a slice of his company was the best way to share upside from the AI boom, the FT said.
His proposal coincides with growing pressure from the Trump administration on major US AI firms. Anthropic suspended its most capable models in June after the government ordered the company to curtail access for foreign nationals, citing national security concerns. This week, Washington removed restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable 5 model, clearing it for wider distribution after the startup resolved the Trump administration’s safety concerns.
There’re also mounting calls for governments and companies around the world to address a growing divide between the haves and have-nots of a historic AI boom. The large-scale construction of data centres worldwide is fuelling a surge in profits and share prices of chipmakers and computing provider – even as more traditional industries lag stock market rallies.
Calls for profit-sharing have escalated in recent months as fears grow over AI replacing jobs, while a handful of companies – including OpenAI and Anthropic – prepare for potentially trillion-dollar initial public offerings.
President Donald Trump has expressed interest in the US government holding equity stakes in leading AI firms, via a government-run wealth fund that would redistribute some of the financial windfall to the public. He’s said he’s spoken with companies about that idea, without offering specifics.
It remains unclear how the government would acquire equity in AI ventures. Since Trump’s return to office, the administration has invested in about a dozen companies, including several involved in the critical minerals industry, and pledged to take a stake of as much as 10 per cent in chipmaker Intel. BLOOMBERG
