OpenAI has discussed with the U.S. government under President Donald Trump the possibility of relinquishing a stake of around five percent in its own company. This was reported by the Financial Times on July 2, 2026, citing two people familiar with the discussions – the original article is behind a paywall but is summarized in detail by CNBC, CNN, and Reuters. At the current valuation of 852 billion U.S. dollars that OpenAI achieved in its funding round in March 2026, such a stake would correspond to a value of around 42.6 billion U.S. dollars.
A Sovereign Wealth Fund Inspired by Alaska
According to the reports, the proposal suggests that not only OpenAI but all leading U.S. AI developers contribute five percent of their company shares to a common vehicle. The Alaska Permanent Fund serves as a model, a sovereign wealth fund that invests the oil revenues of the state in securities and distributes annual dividends to residents. According to TechCrunch, the relinquishment of the shares is also intended to secure good relations with the government and to address political headwinds.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly discussed the idea directly with President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The discussions between Altman and the government have reportedly been ongoing for over a year; initial contacts date back to early 2025. According to the involved sources, the current negotiations are still in an early, “conceptual” stage. Implementation would also likely require a resolution from the U.S. Congress, which could significantly complicate the process.
Connection to OpenAI’s Own Policy Paper
The current discussions are not isolated. In April 2026, OpenAI had already proposed the idea of a “Public Wealth Fund” in its own position paper titled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age”. Such a fund would directly invest in AI labs and companies that utilize the technology, enabling distributions to all citizens – regardless of whether they are personally invested in the financial market. The discussions with the Trump administration that have now come to light concretize this older proposal for the first time in the form of an actual corporate stake.
A Significantly Broader Counterproposal from Bernie Sanders
While OpenAI’s proposal envisions a voluntary five percent relinquishment, the democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders is pursuing a significantly more radical concept. With the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act introduced on June 18, 2026, Sanders calls for a one-time, stock-based relinquishment of 50 percent of the shares of “systemically important” AI companies with more than 200 million U.S. dollars in annual revenue from the AI business. The collected shares would flow into a fund managed by an independent seven-member commission, from which annual distributions to U.S. citizens would be financed – according to estimates from the Senate office, these could initially be around 1,000 U.S. dollars per person. Altman and Sanders are said to have met several times in recent weeks to discuss the topic.
Political Context: Cybersecurity, Job Market, and Bailout Risk
A possible motive for OpenAI’s initiative is to mitigate political headwinds that have recently emerged, particularly in the area of cybersecurity. Both OpenAI and Anthropic had to restrict or delay access to their respective most advanced models in recent weeks: The U.S. government asked OpenAI to limit the broad release of GPT-5.6 to a small circle of state-approved partners, while Anthropic had to temporarily shut down access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models worldwide in June to comply with U.S. government export controls. Access was restored on July 1, 2026, after Anthropic stated it had addressed the political safety concerns.
Additionally, the job market could become a point of contention in the future if predictions from leading AI labs about potential significant employment effects prove accurate. Critics also see a risk in the other direction with government involvement: Once the state becomes a shareholder, they believe the likelihood of government intervention increases if OpenAI’s economic performance deteriorates more than expected – similar to the U.S. stake in semiconductor company Intel, in which the government acquired a roughly 10 percent stake worth 8.9 billion U.S. dollars in August 2025.
Reactions from the Involved Companies
According to the Financial Times, OpenAI declined to comment on the discussions. The White House initially did not respond to press inquiries from the Financial Times and other media. Anthropic, according to a source familiar with the matter, is not currently part of similar discussions about government involvement in its own company; the company and the government have not discussed this so far. None of the other major U.S. AI companies, such as Google or Meta, have publicly indicated a desire to join a comparable model.
The matter thus remains open for now: Neither OpenAI nor the Trump administration has officially confirmed the reports, and there is currently no legal basis for such involvement.
