The Trump administration is discussing a government stake in OpenAI, according to a new report.
CNBC noted that discussions have been going on for over a year, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first sharing the idea with President Donald Trump in 2025.
The agreement could see the company donate equity to the government to seed a "Public Wealth Fund," which the company outlined in a policy proposal, a person familiar with the matter told the outlet.
The fund could "invest in diversified, long-term assets," allowing all U.S. citizens to take part in the "upside" of AI growth, including by receiving funds directly.
Trump addressed the possibility on Friday, saying "there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner."
Sen. Bernie Sanders told the outlet he has also discussed the possibility with Altman. The senator has called for a similar measure, including having the U.S. government take half of the stake in large AI companies.
Governments are increasingly involved in the development and impact of AI. Trump signed an executive order earlier this week establishing voluntary framework allowing developers of advanced AI systems to provide the federal government with early access to their models for cybersecurity reviews.
The White House order also places a significant role in the process with the National Security Agency and other national security agencies, according to the executive order and accompanying White House fact sheet.
Policymakers are increasingly focusing on the potential national security implications of advanced AI systems. The White House executive order directs federal agencies to strengthen cybersecurity protections, establish an AI cybersecurity clearinghouse and develop a classified benchmarking process to assess advanced AI cyber capabilities. The administration said the framework is intended to protect critical infrastructure and federal systems while maintaining U.S. leadership in the technology sector.
Elsewhere, Anthropic called for limits on the development of AI, saying that "recursive self-improvement" could happen sooner than expected.
The company noted that new data shows its frontier models have increased their speed of coding, debugging and research. That situation, it added, could form a feedback loop in which the tools create better models on their own.
The company noted that it cannot predict what the world would look like in that case. "It is difficult to predict what the economy looks like if human labor stops being competitive."
As a result, Anthropic said that if it "were possible to effectively slow the development of this technology to give ourselves more time to deal with its immense implications, we think that would likely be a good thing."
However, it said it is not possible because "if a slowdown simply lets the least cautious actors catch up technologically, it could leave everyone less safe."
