OpenAI proposes handing the US government a 5% stake

The Financial Times reported on 2 July 2026 that OpenAI proposed giving the US government a 5% equity stake — about $42.6 billion at its ~$852 billion post-money valuation — to defuse political pressure and share AI's gains with the public. The stake would reportedly flow into an Alaska-Permanent-Fund-style vehicle that pays public dividends, and OpenAI envisions other US labs — Anthropic, Google and Meta — ceding similar stakes. Sam Altman engaged President Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and spoke with Senator Bernie Sanders.

It's far from settled. The talks are described as conceptual and would likely need an act of Congress; Senator Sanders has pushed a much larger 50% stake, so 5% is the low end of the range. There's precedent — the US took a ~10% stake in Intel (~$8.9 billion) in 2025 — but the multi-lab premise is shaky: Anthropic and the administration reportedly haven't discussed a stake, and the White House, OpenAI, Google and Meta largely declined to comment. The backdrop is cybersecurity worries and cheaper Chinese open-weight models raising the political heat on US labs.

Watch whether the idea moves from a trial balloon to a formal proposal — and whether any rival lab signals openness to matching it. Because a deal this size would likely need congressional action, the real test is political: whether Washington treats OpenAI's offer as a starting point for negotiation or lets it fade. Nothing here is agreed yet.