OpenAI Floats 5% Slice for Uncle Sam — That's One Big Alaska-Sized Dividend 🧈

OpenAI has proposed giving the US government a 5% equity stake in the ChatGPT maker, a slice worth approximately $42.6 billion at the company's latest $852 billion valuation, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman raised the figure in early discussions with President Donald Trump's team, arguing that giving the public a financial interest in OpenAI is the best way to distribute the economic benefits of artificial intelligence. The administration's appetite for the plan remains unknown, and OpenAI and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The proposal, modeled on Alaska's Permanent Fund, would route stakes from multiple US AI companies into a public investment vehicle that could pay dividends to Americans. Altman has discussed the idea directly with Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and has also spoken with Senator Bernie Sanders, who in June proposed a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the largest AI companies to create a nearly $7 trillion sovereign wealth fund. The Alaska Permanent Fund, established in 1976, invests state oil revenue into stocks and pays annual dividends to residents.

OpenAI said other major US AI firms, including Anthropic, Google and Meta, would be asked to contribute comparable 5% stakes to the same vehicle, though none has signaled interest. OpenAI and Anthropic have both filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission for US initial public offerings, with OpenAI's filing submitted in June and timing described as flexible. Any arrangement would likely require Congressional approval, the FT noted, characterizing the talks as conceptual and early-stage.

The proposal lands as Washington steps up oversight of frontier AI. The White House is preparing voluntary standards for advanced models, expected as early as next week, covering security benchmarks, review timelines and access controls, and it asked for a staggered rollout of OpenAI's GPT-5.6 earlier this month. Anthropic spent much of June under emergency export controls on its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models, with the Defense Department previously labeling the company a supply-chain risk before restrictions were lifted this week.

Equity has become the Trump administration's preferred lever for managing tech relationships. The government took a 9.9% stake in Intel last August, paying $8.9 billion by converting CHIPS Act grants into shares at $20.47 each, a position now valued well over $50 billion. Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia agreed to hand over 15% of their China chip revenues in exchange for export licenses, and Trump said in May he should have negotiated a larger stake in Intel. OpenAI, which has signed government partnerships that Anthropic declined, is also facing a probe from a coalition of 42 state attorneys general.