RUMOR MILL: OpenAI is weighing a plan to give the US government a direct financial stake in the company, as artificial intelligence becomes as much a political issue as a technological one. The $852 billion AI startup has discussed offering the federal government a 5% equity stake, according to two people familiar with the talks. The discussions are still in the early, largely conceptual stage, but they reflect OpenAI's effort to respond to mounting scrutiny from Washington over its most advanced systems.
Chief executive Sam Altman has argued that the public should share in the economic gains created by AI. In discussions with policymakers, he suggested that a government stake could help distribute those financial gains more broadly while improving relations between the industry and regulators.
The proposal is not limited to OpenAI. Altman and other executives have floated the idea of leading US AI companies each contributing 5% of their equity to a fund modeled on Alaska's Permanent Fund, which invests the state's oil revenues and pays dividends to the government and residents. Whether other companies – such as Anthropic, Google, or Meta – would agree to such an arrangement remains unclear.
