OpenAI offers US a 5% stake, Trump supports; Sanders wants more

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is in active talks with the Trump administration about the United States acquiring a 5 percent stake in OpenAI, and those discussions are in "early stages," Financial Times insiders told sources cited in the article. Altman "has argued that giving the public a financial stake in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI."

What is OpenAI proposing and who is involved?

OpenAI has floated gifting a 5 percent equity stake to the US and linking it to an "AI wealth fund" that would provide Americans a share of AI-driven economic gains. The company has discussed the idea with Trump officials including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the proposal has also reached Senator Bernie Sanders. Other leading AI firms were reportedly approached about similar public stakes, including Google and Meta, though the firms declined to comment.

OpenAI has framed the concept like the Alaska Permanent Fund, which "invests Alaska's oil wealth into stocks and pays dividends to the state government and residents." In the spring OpenAI first proposed creating an "AI wealth fund" that "provides every citizen—including those not invested in financial markets—with a stake in AI-driven economic growth," FT reported.

How does that compare to Sanders' plan and public opinion on AI?

Sanders is pushing a much larger approach: his plan would require leading AI firms to pay a one-time 50 percent tax on their stock, which he estimates would yield about $7 trillion to disburse as direct payments or invest in programs such as health care, education, and housing. The article notes that Altman and Sanders remained "far apart" on how much stake the public should have.

Public sentiment is part of the backdrop. Recent polls cited in the piece found that 70 percent of Americans do not want AI data centers built in their area, and half of Americans are more concerned than excited about AI. In June, Pew Research Center noted that views about AI and how fast it is advancing "tilt negative—even for younger adults." NBC News also reported that voters across party lines want tighter AI regulations.

Meta has not voluntarily agreed to share frontier AI models with officials for safety testing, The New York Times reported, a detail that highlights disagreement between companies on how to engage with regulators and the public.

Why does this matter?

A public equity stake or a sovereign-style AI fund would be an unusual mechanism for redistributing the financial upside of private technology. If implemented, it would force Congress and federal agencies to create legal and governance mechanisms for taking and managing equity stakes in private AI firms, a process FT said likely requires legislative action. The debate also reveals a broader political split: some industry leaders and the Trump administration view a smaller public stake as a pragmatic compromise, while Sanders and other critics want far larger, immediate transfers or regulatory controls to address economic and safety concerns.

Sanders summarized his stance on public involvement in governance: "The public has got to have a significant seat at the table to make sure that terrible things do not happen to ordinary people, and that in fact, AI benefits ordinary people, not hurts them."

What to watch

Watch whether Congress takes up enabling legislation to accept gifted equity or to create a federal vehicle for an AI wealth fund, and whether other major firms such as Google and Meta engage with the idea. Also track negotiations between OpenAI and Sanders on the size and structure of any public stake, and whether officials named in the talks, including Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, formalize a proposal beyond the "early stages" described in the report.