Sam Altman reportedly proposed donating 5% of OpenAI’s equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. The Financial Times broke the story, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The idea? Let the American public share in AI’s financial upside. Other AI companies would chip in similar stakes. According to the FT, the proposal aims to “secure good relations with the administration” and manage political blowback.
This isn’t entirely new. CNBC reported similar discussions in June, and President Trump later confirmed he’d talked about “concepts where pieces could be given to the American public.” No specific stake size was mentioned at that point.
OpenAI has been getting more specific. An April policy paper called “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age” proposed a public wealth fund that could invest directly in AI labs. Returns would be distributed to citizens — no matter their starting wealth.
Senator Bernie Sanders has a more aggressive version. His bill would tax AI company stock at 50% in a one-time hit, depositing shares into a public fund. It hasn’t made it out of committee yet.
Talks are still preliminary. Any formal action would likely need congressional approval — and that’s a heavy lift.
