OpenAI has floated donating a stake worth up to 5% of the company to the US government, a gift rather than a sale, that at its roughly $852 billion valuation could top $42 billion.
You don't often see a private company hand the government free stock. That is essentially what OpenAI is discussing with the Trump administration, according to CNBC and a Financial Times report that circulated this week. The talks center on a 1% to 5% equity donation, worth anywhere from about $8.5 billion to more than $42 billion at OpenAI's current private valuation.
This isn't a bailout. No cash changes hands, no taxpayer money buys in, and OpenAI keeps control of its board. The mechanism is a donation, which lets the White House claim it captured some of the AI boom's upside without writing a check or taking on the risk of owning a stake outright. Trump himself addressed the idea aboard Air Force One, telling reporters there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the public essentially becomes a partner.
The idea traces back further than this week's headlines. Altman first raised it with Trump in a conversation in early 2025, and OpenAI formalized the pitch in an April policy paper proposing a Public Wealth Fund that would let ordinary citizens share in AI-driven growth, either through direct account payouts or dividends. Talks have continued on and off for more than a year, and CNBC reported on June 5 that both sides were still negotiating terms with nothing finalized.
Here's the political backdrop that makes OpenAI's offer look modest. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in early June, which would force OpenAI, Anthropic and other major labs to hand over 50% of their equity in a one time tax, paid in shares, with the proceeds going into a fund that carries voting rights and board seats. Next to that, a voluntary 1% to 5% donation with no governance strings attached looks like a company setting its own price before someone else sets it for them.
Anthropic has said publicly it isn't part of these discussions and isn't offering equity to the administration, though the company has floated its own version of the idea: sovereign wealth funds that hold stakes across the AI industry rather than one lab writing a check to Washington. That leaves OpenAI negotiating alone for now, at the same moment it's restructuring from a nonprofit controlled entity into a public benefit corporation and preparing for a possible IPO.
The legal path here doesn't fully exist yet. There's no established mechanism for a private company to voluntarily transfer equity to the federal government outside a formal investment, and people familiar with the talks have cautioned the deal could still fall apart. Frankly, that's the part worth watching, not the headline percentage.
A government stake also changes incentives in ways nobody involved says out loud. Once Washington owns a piece of OpenAI, it has a reason to protect that investment, which could mean lighter safety regulation and, if the company ever stumbles, pressure to intervene rather than let it fail. Norway's sovereign wealth fund works because it holds diversified stakes across thousands of companies with no single one calling in favors. A fund built around one lab's donated shares doesn't have that insulation.
This is a negotiation, not a done deal, and the number could move in either direction before anyone signs anything. But the precedent matters regardless of where it lands. If OpenAI gives up equity for nothing but political goodwill, every other AI lab racing to build data centers and raise money at nosebleed valuations will face the same question from Washington eventually.
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