OpenAI May Offer 5% Stake To US Government Under New Proposal: Report

OpenAI is in early talks to give the US government a 5% ownership stake in the company, according to a report. The proposal is part of efforts by artificial intelligence (AI) companies to build closer ties with the Trump administration, according to Financial Times.

The company's CEO Sam Altman reportedly believes that giving the US government a stake in the company would allow the American public to benefit from the future growth of AI. The report also comes after OpenAI delayed the full public launch of GPT-5.6 last week at the request of the US government.

The discussions are still at an early stage, and no final decision has been made. The report said any such plan would likely require approval from the US Congress before it could be implemented.

According to the report, Altman and other OpenAI executives have suggested that other major US AI companies could also contribute 5% of their shares to a public investment fund. 

The fund could work like the Alaska Permanent Fund, which invests oil revenue and pays returns to Alaska residents. The proposal comes as the US government steps up oversight of AI companies. 

Last month, Trump said his administration was looking at ways to let ordinary Americans benefit financially from the fast-growing AI industry. The concern is that AI companies could make huge profits while the public gets little benefit.

Earlier, OpenAI suggested creating a public wealth fund. This fund would invest in AI companies, and any profits earned could be shared with US citizens. Anthropic also proposed a similar idea called a "digital dividend." Under this plan, AI companies would pay taxes, and that money could be distributed to Americans.

The government had also earlier asked Anthropic to temporarily stop giving some of its most advanced AI models to foreign users because of national security concerns. However, Anthropic later restored the access after addressing the issues.