Financial Times reported Sam Altman is in talks with President Donald Trump about giving the US government a 5% stake in OpenAI, reviving his long-running idea that Americans should share in AI wealth.
At OpenAI’s $852 billion March valuation, that stake would be worth about $42.6 billion today—roughly $320 per US household if distributed directly, though a government-run fund could instead hold it and pay out returns later.
Altman’s pitch rests on two arguments: AI companies profit from human-created books, art and other work without paying creators, and a public stake could ease fears that AI will damage jobs.
For OpenAI, the proposal could also help politically by improving public sentiment and aligning with a Trump administration that has shown interest in taking stakes or revenue shares in strategic tech deals.
The report says the idea still looks more like narrative than policy: Altman has floated versions of it since 2021, but there is still little sign of a concrete plan.