OpenAI in Talks Over $43bn Trump Deal

OpenAI is reportedly weighing whether to give the US government a 5 percent stake in the company, a slice that would be worth roughly $43 billion at its current valuation. The idea has come up in talks between chief executive Sam Altman and the White House as the company prepares for a stock market listing that could value it at $1 trillion.

According to reporting from the Financial Times, Altman raised the offer as part of broader conversations about tightening the relationship between OpenAI and the Trump administration. The timing matters: OpenAI is currently valued at $852 billion, but it wants to list in New York at a valuation closer to $1 trillion, which would make that 5 percent stake even more valuable by the time any deal closes.

Trump has floated this idea for months

President Trump has talked openly about wanting the federal government, and by extension the American public, to hold equity in leading AI companies. Last month he described the concept as a kind of partnership with citizens, saying it would let ordinary Americans become partners in what he calls the AI revolution. His exact words: it would be a beautiful thing that would make people rich.

He has mentioned OpenAI alongside Anthropic and Google as candidates for this kind of arrangement. The government already has a template to point to. Washington took a 10 percent stake in chipmaker Intel last year, a position worth about $9 billion at the time that has since climbed past $60 billion in value, and Trump has repeatedly cited that gain as proof the strategy works for taxpayers.

Altman himself isn't new to this territory. He has previously floated the idea of a public wealth fund that would own pieces of AI companies including his own, which suggests the current proposal fits a pattern he has been pushing rather than a one off concession to political pressure.

Who would actually hold the shares

There is no consensus yet inside the administration on the mechanics. Vice President JD Vance has said Trump prefers routing any government held shares through a sovereign wealth fund. Other officials have floated a different vehicle: so called Trump accounts, the children's investment accounts the administration has been setting up, could be used to hold the stock instead.

On the left, Senator Bernie Sanders has pushed a much bigger number, arguing the public should own as much as 50 percent of these companies rather than a token stake. Anthropic, for its part, has proposed a different mechanism entirely: taxing the AI industry directly to fund what it calls a digital dividend paid out to the public.

A more hands on White House

None of this is happening in a vacuum. The administration's posture toward AI has shifted noticeably from largely hands off to actively interventionist. Officials have blocked the release of Anthropic's most powerful models and pushed OpenAI to restrict who can access its newest systems, moves that coincide with intensifying competition from Chinese AI developers.

The backdrop for all of this is public unease about AI's effect on jobs and the rapid spread of data centers across the country. Giving taxpayers a direct financial stake is one way officials are trying to answer that anxiety, even as the exact structure, size and legal vehicle for any such stake remain unsettled. OpenAI has not commented publicly on the reported discussions.