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President Donald Trump said on Friday that he’s spoken to AI companies about striking deals “where the American people can benefit from the success of AI.”
Trump does not seem to have mentioned specific companies in his comments, but OpenAI is a likely candidate, especially after CNBC reported that the Trump administration has indeed been discussing an equity stake with the AI company.
CNBC said some of that equity could be used to seed a “Public Wealth Fund” recently proposed by OpenAI. As outlined by the company, proceeds from the fund “could be distributed directly to citizens, allowing more people to participate directly in the upside of AI-driven growth, regardless of their starting wealth or access to capital.”
According to Bloomberg, when reporters on Air Force One asked Trump about the idea, he replied that he’s been talking to AI executives about “concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies.”
Bloomberg also reports that CEO Sam Altman has been discussing the idea of a government stake in major AI companies since early 2025.
This seems to align with Trump’s broader interest in government ownership of for-profit companies — most notably, with the government taking a 10% stake in struggling chipmaker Intel last year.
The idea has also found some traction on the left, with Senator Bernie Sanders this week proposing a one-time, 50% tax that companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI (which is part of SpaceX) would pay in the form of stock.
With all of those businesses potentially going public this year, Sanders argued this tax would “give the public a direct role in determining the future of this technology” and “guarantee that the trillions of dollars potentially generated by A.I. are used to improve the lives of all of us.”
David Sacks, an investor and podcaster who recently stepped down from his role as Trump’s AI and crypto czar, posted that he can see why Sanders’ idea resonates, “including with many on the right,” but warned it would actually “accelerate the corporate-government fusion we’re already sliding toward.” (Sacks now co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.)
Elsewhere on social media, former Microsoft employee Dare Obasanjo suggested, “The groundwork is already being laid for a government bailout of OpenAI.”
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Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.