Sam Altman Offers US Government 5 Percent Stake in OpenAI

OpenAI has proposed that the United States government take a 5 percent stake in the company. The proposal, first reported by the Financial Times, is meant to share the benefits of AI development with citizens while easing the growing political pressure surrounding Sam Altman's company.

According to the Financial Times, the proposal is still preliminary and conceptual. Altman reportedly wants other leading American AI companies, including Google, Anthropic, Meta, and xAI, to contribute similar stakes to a shared fund, creating a mechanism resembling a sovereign wealth fund backed by private tech company capital.

Where the Fund Idea Comes From

Altman has spent months publicly developing the concept of a wealth fund built on stakes in AI companies, comparing the development of artificial intelligence to oil extraction, a resource from which the state should draw a share of profits and redistribute them to citizens. The model is the Alaska Permanent Fund, established in 1976, which collects the state of Alaska's oil revenue and pays annual dividends to residents.

Talks about public ownership in OpenAI have been going on for more than a year. Altman reportedly first floated the idea to the Trump administration as early as the beginning of 2025, but only now has the proposal taken concrete numerical shape in the form of a 5 percent stake.

Criticism From the Left

Altman's proposal has received a cool reception from Senator Bernie Sanders, who has spent months pushing a far more sweeping bill that would impose a one-time 50 percent tax on shares of the largest AI companies, paid not in cash but in securities. Sanders considers Altman's offer a diluted version of genuine public ownership.

When a public resource generates wealth, society should share in that wealth. The future of AI and the fate of humanity cannot be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley by billionaires seeking to maximize their own power and profits. - Senator Bernie Sanders

Sanders himself admits his bill has no co-sponsors, was not discussed with the White House, and has little chance of passing a Republican-controlled Congress. Still, his criticism is shaping the debate over whether the 5 percent offer is a genuine gesture toward taxpayers or mainly an image exercise meant to preempt more radical regulation.

Political Pressure Context

The proposal comes as the Trump administration increasingly demands direct benefits for the state from tech companies in exchange for regulatory and infrastructure support. The US government has already taken a 9.9 percent stake in Intel and a 15 percent stake in rare earth metals company MP Materials, setting a precedent for similar arrangements in the AI sector.

For OpenAI, offering the government a stake is also a way to build political cover at a time when the company faces growing competition from Anthropic and Google, as well as criticism over the energy costs and social effects of AI's rapid rollout.

What Comes Next

Any formal execution of the plan would require Congressional approval, which significantly complicates matters, especially given the lack of unanimity even among Democrats on what form such public ownership should take. For now, the talks remain informal, and Altman has not presented a timeline or final legal structure for the proposed fund.

For Polish companies and institutions watching the AI market, the episode shows that relations between the largest labs and the US government are entering a new phase, one in which political capital matters as much as technological advantage. This could have long-term implications for global rules governing access to the most advanced models.

Sources: Euronews (euronews.com), TechCrunch (techcrunch.com), Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com), Moneywise (moneywise.com)