The Trump administration is considering a proposal that could see the federal government take equity stakes in major artificial intelligence companies.
President Trump confirmed the reports Thursday during a press briefing aboard Air Force One, noting he will likely meet with representatives of “all the big” AI developers at the White House next week.
“There’s a concept out there, there’s so much money and it’s so big that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump said.
The discussions, first reported by NOTUS, have been ongoing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for over a year. Under the proposed plan, OpenAI would donate equity to the government, financing an investment vehicle that could issue dividends to U.S. households.
The size of the government stakes remains unclear, but Senator Bernie Sanders recently proposed a 50% government stake in AI providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. Trump acknowledged some alignment on the economic aspects of the idea.
This follows the Commerce Department's recent agreement to issue $2.013 billion in grants to IBM, GlobalFoundries, and others in quantum computing, with the government receiving shares-amounting to a 1% stake from GlobalFoundries.