Both Left and Right in Washington Eye Public Equity Stakes in AI Companies

Per CNBC’s sources, Trump’s interest in the idea originated in a conversation with OpenAI Ceo Sam Altman,  who suggested the equity stake could be used to seed something like the Public Wealth Fund outlined in the company’s Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age proposal released in April. Money from the fund could then be distributed directly to public, giving all U.S. citizens a share of the economic gains produced by the technology, much as Alaska has for decades distributed money collected from fees paid by oil companies directly to residents.

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OpenAI may not be the only AI company discussing public equity stakes with the White House, moreover. Online news site NOTUS reported last week that the administration has held similar conversations with several leading AI companies in addition to OpenAI. While the plans being discussed are fluid, per NOTUS’ sources, they center on the companies voluntarily ceding shares to the government that would be used to fund public priorities, potentially including direct dividend payments to citizens.

Following the NOTUS report, the president discussed the idea in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. “There are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner,” Trump said, adding he would be meeting with the AI companies “in the very short, very near future.”

The increased interest in the idea from both ends of the political and ideological spectrum comes as OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI (part of SpaceX) are gearing up for initial public offerings that are expected to yield hundreds of billions of dollars. OpenAI is currently valued by private investors at $850 billion while Anthropic’s latest fund-raising round valued the company at more than $900 billion. The SpaceX IPO, meanwhile, is expected to be priced at well over $1 trillion.

Under Trump, the U.S. has made direct investments in at least 10 companies, including a deal with Intel that the White House has called a “direct windfall for American taxpayers,” as the chipmaker’s stock has grown four-fold in the months since.

Whether the bipartisan interest in taking public stakes in AI companies will lead to bipartisan action remains to be seen. Apart from distributing funds directly to Americans, Republicans and Democrats are likely to have very different priorities for other uses of the money. In his op-ed calling for mandatory equity transfers, Sanders said the funds should be used to support health care, education, housing, and other public goods. Under Trump, Republicans in Congress have focused on cutting funds for health care, education and food assistance and are more likely to prioritize using funds from the equity stakes to pay for further income tax cuts.

It’s also unclear from the reports whether any earnings from the stakes would go into the general U.S. treasury, where any disbursements would require explicit congressional debate and appropriation, or whether the money would go into a separate, sui generis fund. If the latter, control of the fund could trigger additional political battles.