OpenAI Offers US Government 5% Stake To Ease Trump Tensions

OpenAI today has proposed handing a 5% stake to the US government in the company, in an attempt to ease relations with the Donald Trump government.

Based on the AI lab's post-money valuation of $852 billion, reached after its record-breaking funding round in March, a 5% stake would be worth approximately $42.6 billion. CEO Sam Altman has established that giving the public a financial interest in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI.

Sources told Republic Business exclusively that other US AI companies might also be willing to share a similar stake with the government. Altman reportedly proposed a stake of this size during preliminary talks with the Trump administration, as part of a wider plan in which the government would take a 5% ownership position in each of the leading US AI developers through a dedicated government vehicle.

This comes at a notable moment for the US AI industry, which has faced a stringent regulatory approach under the Trump administration. Anthropic suspended access to its newest model last month after government orders to limit foreign national access over national security concerns, before restoring customer access this week once those concerns were addressed.

OpenAI's proposal signals a broader shift in how the US government may engage financially with the AI sector it once approached with caution. That shift is already visible in the industry's other flashpoints with the Trump administration lifting its restrictions on Anthropic's Claude models on July 1 2026, ending a weekslong ban tied to cybersecurity concerns.

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