EXCLUSIVE — President Donald Trump‘s claim that he’s speaking to the major American artificial intelligence companies about creating a “partnership” with the federal government caught some of the leading firms by surprise, four people familiar tell the Washington Examiner.On Friday, Trump told reporters that he’d spoken to AI executives about making the American public “rich” by potentially having the government take an equity stake in the companies or exploring some type of public dividend. Last year, the Trump administration negotiated a deal to take a 10% equity stake in Intel, making the federal government the company’s single largest shareholder.“There’s so much money and it’s so big, that there are concepts where leases could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the company, with the companies,” the president said, adding that “all” of the major companies would attend a meeting at the White House this week on the subject. “We’re talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI, and by doing that, they’re going to like it better.”
But no such meeting has been scheduled, according to people in the AI space and White House officials. Four sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner that certain AI companies had not been engaged in the conversations the president alluded to.
