President Donald Trump said Friday that he has talked with AI companies about entering into agreements that “allow Americans to benefit from the successes of AI.”
Although President Trump did not seem to mention any specific companies in his comments, OpenAI is a likely candidate, especially after CNBC reported that the Trump administration is indeed in talks to acquire stock in AI companies.
CNBC said some of that stake could be used to seed OpenAI’s recently proposed “public wealth fund.” According to the company’s overview, proceeds from the fund “can be distributed directly to the public, allowing more people to directly participate in the AI-driven growth turnaround, regardless of their initial wealth or access to capital.”
When reporters aboard Air Force One asked Trump about the idea, he said they were discussing “a concept that would give the American people a piece of the pie, a concept where the American people would essentially be partners in business,” according to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg also reported that CEO Sam Altman is discussing the idea of government funding of major AI companies starting in early 2025.
This appears to be consistent with President Trump’s broader interest in government ownership of commercial companies, most notably last year’s acquisition by the government of a 10% stake in ailing semiconductor maker Intel.
The idea has gained some support on the left, with Sen. Bernie Sanders this week proposing a one-time 50% tax paid in the form of equity by companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI (part of SpaceX).
With all of these companies likely to go public by the end of the 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 that could be generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us.”
Investor David Sachs, who recently stepped down from his role as President Trump’s AI and cryptocurrency czar, posted that he understands why Sanders’ ideas resonate “including with many on the right,” but warned that it would actually “accelerate the convergence of business and government that we are already striving for.”
Former Microsoft employee Dare Obasanjo suggested elsewhere on social media that “the groundwork has already been laid for a government rescue of OpenAI.”
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