OpenAI considers giving Trump administration 5% stake in AI firm, report says

OpenAI is in talks to give the Trump administration a 5 per cent stake in the AI firm, according to a report. The ChatGPT creator reportedly made the proposal as a way of easing tensions with the US government ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO). OpenAI also proposed that other US AI firms like Anthropic also give Washington similar stakes, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the talks. Last year, ​the US government took a roughly 10 per cent stake in Intel and a 15 per cent holding in MP Materials, among others. The move follows growing public backlash in the US over AI's potential to cause economic upheaval, including layoffs, and could help OpenAI sweeten ties with an administration increasingly taking an active role in regulating the technology. The Independent has reached out to OpenAI for comment. A Trump administration request prompted OpenAI to delay the wide release of its latest AI model, GPT-5.6, last week, days after `rival Anthropic suspended access to its most advanced models, including Fable `5, due to a government order to keep the technology out of the hands of foreign nationals. The US removed curbs on Anthropic's AI models on Tuesday. Last month, President Donald Trump said he was exploring options to give the public a stake in leading AI companies, in response to concerns that individual Americans will not share in the sector's expected profits. Senator Bernie ‌Sanders has also advocated for the government taking 50 per cent stake in big AI companies, arguing the technology is built on human knowledge used without permission and compensation. Forrester analyst Indranil Bandyopadhyay said a pre-IPO government stake could ease investor risk concerns about regulation in the US but may trigger `similar demands from other countries. "Expect other jurisdictions to demand analogous arrangements as a condition of market access and expect enterprise buyers in Europe and Asia-Pacific to reassess data sovereignty and neutrality assumptions about US model providers,” he said. The structure OpenAI executives have suggested would see leading US AI firms allot 5 per cent of their equity to a vehicle modeled on the Alaska Permanent Fund, a state-owned corporation seeded with oil revenue that pays annual dividends to residents and helps fund Alaska's budget, the FT report said. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly discussed the proposed stake with Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick ‌and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He has also spoken to Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders ​in recent weeks.