Senior Trump administration officials have held preliminary discussions with major AI companies about the federal government acquiring equity stakes in their firms, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman driving the conversations, according to three people familiar with the matter cited by NOTUS.
Altman first pitched the concept to President Donald Trump in early 2025 and revisited it with senior officials in recent weeks. Under the model discussed, companies would transfer shares at no cost — not a purchase — with returns directed toward public purposes, including potential dividend payments to American households. Neither the White House nor OpenAI responded to requests for comment.
No formal agreement is currently in place, and the legal mechanism for any voluntary equity transfer remains unclear. Anthropic is not in these conversations, a person familiar with the matter told NOTUS.
Both companies are preparing for what could be among the largest IPOs in history. Anthropic confidentially filed its prospectus with the SEC on June 1 at a reported $965 billion valuation; OpenAI is preparing its own filing, last reportedly valued at $852 billion in March 2026. Any shares transferred to the government would dilute existing shareholders while potentially building regulatory goodwill.
Related: Anthropic Warns AI May Soon Build Itself, Calls for Global Pause Mechanism
The administration has already moved in this direction elsewhere. In May, it announced $2 billion in equity stakes across nine quantum computing companies, with IBM (NYSE: IBM) receiving roughly $1 billion. Trump earlier converted CHIPS Act grants into a 9.9% stake in Intel (Nasdaq: INTC).
The same day, Canada launched its AI for All strategy — including a $500 million Canadian Tech Growth Fund to take equity stakes in domestic AI companies. Canada deploys public spending to acquire positions; the US model has companies transferring shares at no cost. Both moved toward direct public ownership of AI on the same day.
Back in the US, Senator Bernie Sanders argues that any partial stake falls far short. His American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would impose a one-time 50% tax payable in stock on leading AI firms — naming OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI — depositing the equity into a public fund with voting rights and eventual dividends to citizens. Senator Elizabeth Warren published “Why We Need to Tax AI” in Time on May 27, pressing for a public share of AI wealth ahead of the IPOs.
Read: Sanders Bill Would Force AI Companies to Hand 50% of Their Equity to New U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund
The Trump administration — historically hostile to government ownership — has already arrived at partial public ownership of tech firms without the redistribution Sanders demands.
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