U.S. Senior Official Considering Accepting Stake in AI Tech Giant Through 'Voluntary Transfer'

June 5 — According to three sources familiar with the matter, senior U.S. officials have held preliminary talks with several large artificial intelligence firms over the possibility of the U.S. federal government taking equity stakes in these companies. Two independent sources share that Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has raised this idea multiple times with top Trump administration officials since the start of Trump’s second term. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of internal talks. They further stated that Altman first floated the concept directly to President Trump in an early 2025 meeting and has revisited the proposal with administration officials in recent weeks, aiming to distribute AI-related economic gains more widely to the general public. Anthropic, another major AI giant, has not engaged in any discussions with the government about offering equity to the federal side, the sources added. Insiders revealed that while the plan is still being developed and full details have not been nailed down, the key focus of the ongoing talks is for these AI companies to voluntarily transfer shares to the U.S. government. Any returns from these investments would then be allocated to public uses—examples include issuing dividends to every American household. Click the original article link below to join BlockBeats’ Feishu AI News Channel, and get 24/7 real-time updates on global AI hot topics and breaking news.