OpenAI is considering offering a 5% stake to the Trump administration, with Altman advocating AI developers to follow suit.

BlockBeats News, July 2nd, according to the Financial Times, OpenAI has discussed the possibility of giving the U.S. government a 5% stake. The $852 billion artificial intelligence startup is seeking to clear political hurdles by securing financial support from the Trump administration.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, Sam Altman has expressed to senior government officials that allowing the public to hold a stake in the company is the best way to share the benefits of AI development, and he proposed this percentage of ownership during early discussions with the government.

Under the proposed arrangement, other U.S. AI companies would also give up a similar share of their equity, but it is unclear at this time whether other labs are willing to do so.

Transferring ownership stakes to the government would help establish a good relationship with the government and also signify an attempt to address political pushback by sharing the wealth created by AI with the public.

The U.S. public and political figures are increasingly concerned about the construction of large-scale data centers and the impact of AI on employment and cybersecurity, creating a more challenging environment for AI labs in Washington.

Sam Altman and other OpenAI executives suggest that every leading AI developer in the U.S. should allocate 5% of their equity to an entity similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund—the sovereign wealth fund that invests the state's oil wealth in stocks and distributes dividends to the state government and residents.

These companies may include Anthropic, as well as giants like Google and Meta, but it is unclear at this stage if any of these groups would agree to OpenAI's proposal.

Sources say that the "conceptual" negotiations between the government and OpenAI are still in the early stages, and any agreement may require congressional legislation to be implemented. However, these discussions demonstrate a potential mechanism for distributing the financial benefits brought by this technology.