OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT and one of the most valuable private enterprises on the planet, is in discussions to give a stake of up to 5% to the US government. The Financial Times first reported the arrangement, which would channel equity from the AI giant into a so-called “Public Wealth Fund” intended to distribute the economic benefits of artificial intelligence to ordinary Americans.
With OpenAI’s valuation sitting at approximately $852 billion, even the low end of the proposed range, 1%, would represent billions of dollars in public value. At 5%, the stake would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, a sum larger than the GDP of most small nations.
What’s actually on the table
The discussions between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Trump administration officials have been ongoing since early 2025. The concept centers on a voluntary equity donation rather than a government mandate or forced taxation.
OpenAI laid the intellectual groundwork for this proposal in an April 2026 policy document. That document drew explicit parallels between AI’s societal impact and the Industrial Revolution, essentially arguing that technological transformations of this magnitude require new mechanisms for distributing the resulting wealth.
