President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken with AI companies about deals “that would allow the American people to benefit from the success of AI.”
Trump did not appear to mention any specific company in his remarks, but OpenAI is likely to be a strong candidate, especially after CNBC reported that the Trump administration is discussing an equity stake with the AI company.
CNBC said some of those shares could be used to create a ‘public asset fund’, as recently proposed by OpenAI. According to the company, proceeds from the fund “can be distributed directly to citizens, allowing more people to participate directly in the positive aspects of AI-driven growth, regardless of whether they have initial assets or access to capital.”
According to Bloomberg, when Air Force One reporters asked Trump about the idea, Trump responded that he was talking with AI executives about “a concept that could provide some to the American public, where the American public essentially partners with the companies.”
Bloomberg also reported that CEO Sam Altman has been discussing securing government stakes in major AI companies since early 2025.
This appears to be consistent with Trump’s broader interest in government ownership of commercial companies. Most notably, the government acquired a 10% stake in struggling chipmaker Intel last year.
The idea also gained some traction on the left this week when Senator Bernie Sanders proposed a one-time 50% tax that companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI (part of SpaceX) would pay in the form of stock.
With every company likely to go public this year, Sanders argued that the tax would “give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology” and “ensure that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us.”
David Sacks, an investor and podcaster who recently dethroned Trump’s AI and cryptocurrency czar, posted that he could see why Sanders’ ideas would resonate “including with many on the right,” but warned that it would actually “accelerate the corporate-government convergence we are already moving toward.” (Sacks currently co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.)
Elsewhere on social media, former Microsoft employee Dare Obasanjo suggested that “the groundwork is already being laid for a government bailout of Open AI.”
If you purchase through links in our articles, we may receive a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
