OpenAI Floats Giving Government 5% Share in Company

OpenAI has reportedly weighed offering the U.S. government 5% of its company.

That’s according to a Thursday (July 2) Financial Times (FT) report, which characterizes the move as the artificial intelligence (AI) startup aiming to clear political hurdles with a financial buy-in from the White House.

CEO Sam Altman has argued that giving the government a stake in the company is the best way to share the benefits of AI, and has suggested the 5% share in discussions with the Trump administration, two sources familiar with the talks told the FT. PYMNTS has contacted OpenAI for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The report added that the proposal also calls for other American AI firms to give the public a similarly-sized stake, though it’s unclear if these companies would be amenable to the idea. The companies in question could include Anthropic, Meta and Google, the report said.

A separate report from Reuters Thursday—citing sources familiar with the matter—said that Anthropic had not discussed the possibility of giving the government a stake in its company.

Sources told the FT that Altman has been actively discussing the idea with members of the administration, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and President Donald Trump.

The FT added that Altman has also spoken with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, in recent weeks. Sanders has lobbied for public ownership of nearly half of each American AI company through a sovereign wealth fund.

The report noted that AI companies have faced growing pushback in Washington as both the public and politicians become more concerned about massive data center construction, and the impact AI might have on employment and cybersecurity.

OpenAI and its main rival Anthropic have recently both had the launch of their latest models halted due to government scrutiny, the report pointed out, while some Republicans and advisers to Trump have pushed for much more stringent oversight of the industry.

Both companies are preparing for initial public offerings, the FT added, though OpenAI’s listing might not happen until next year, as its advisers worry about a volatile stock market.

OpenAI said last week that it would limit rollout of its GPT-5.6 series AI models to a select group of trusted partners at the government’s request, though it plans to work with those partners and work on a wider release in the coming weeks.

“We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” OpenAI wrote on its blog. “It keeps the best tools from users, developers, enterprises, cyber defenders and global partners who need them.”