President Trump wants a piece of the AI pie, and he’s not just talking about for himself. He announced plans to gather top AI executives to discuss how the US government could negotiate equity stakes in their companies, with the stated goal of letting ordinary Americans benefit financially from the AI boom.
Here’s the thing: as of June 10, 2026, no formal invitations have actually been sent. Major firms including Microsoft and Google were reportedly blindsided by the announcement, which is one way to start a partnership.
The pitch: public ownership of AI’s upside
Trump floated the idea on June 5-6, framing it as a “partnership with the American public.” The concept is straightforward: if AI companies are going to reshape the economy, regular citizens should get a cut. The mechanism he’s proposing is government-negotiated equity stakes in major AI firms.
The model he cited? The federal government’s existing 10% stake in Intel. In Trump’s telling, that arrangement worked well enough to serve as a template for something far more ambitious, one that would span the biggest names in artificial intelligence.
