OpenAI Reportedly Offers US Government A 5% Stake Worth $42 Billion To Ease Political Pressure

OpenAI has proposed giving the American government a 5% ownership stake in the company, according to a Thursday report by the Financial Times, as the company looks to calm growing political tension in Washington around AI. Based on OpenAI's most recent valuation, this 5% slice would be worth close to $42.6 billion. That valuation comes from a massive funding round the company closed back in March, which put OpenAI's total worth at $852 billion.

Why Altman is pushing this idea

According to the FT, which cited two people familiar with the discussions, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has argued that giving the public a real financial stake in the company is one of the fairest ways to make sure ordinary Americans also benefit from AI's growth, rather than just investors and the company itself.

Not just OpenAI- a plan for the whole industry

Altman reportedly floated this idea in early conversations with the Trump administration, but the plan isn't limited to just one company. The proposal outlines a broader system where the U.S. government would hold a 5% stake in each of the country's top AI companies, all managed through a single government-run investment vehicle.

Under this model, other major players like Anthropic, Google and Meta would also be expected to hand over similar 5% stakes to the government. However, it's still unclear whether any of these companies are actually willing to go along with the plan. So far, the White House, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta have all declined to comment when approached.

Why is this pressure building now?

This proposal doesn't exist in a vacuum. Washington has been growing increasingly uneasy about two things: cybersecurity risks tied to powerful AI models, and the rise of Chinese open-source AI models that are closing the performance gap with top American systems, often at a fraction of the cost.

Anthropic recently felt this pressure directly. Last month, the company temporarily cut off access to its advanced Mythos and Fable models in order to comply with a government export control order. Access to both models was restored this week after Anthropic said it had addressed the safety concerns policymakers had raised.

Not a new conversation

This isn't the first time a government stake in OpenAI has been discussed. Talks around this idea have reportedly been going on for over a year, with Altman first raising the concept with the Trump administration back in early 2025.

Earlier this year, in April, OpenAI also proposed setting up what it called a "public wealth fund," a mechanism designed to hold stakes in AI companies and share the financial gains from AI's growth with the public at large.

For now, this remains a proposal rather than a done deal. Whether the U.S. government moves forward with taking equity stakes across the AI industry, and whether companies like Anthropic, Google and Meta agree to similar arrangements, remains to be seen.

Read More: OpenAI Hires Former Uber India Boss Prabhjeet Singh to Lead Its India Business