Trump proposes US government take ownership stake in AI companies for public benefit

President Donald Trump said Friday he is considering a federal government “partnership” with major artificial-intelligence companies that would give the American public an equity stake in the firms, allowing them to share in the wealth generated by the technology.

“There's something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to an event in Wisconsin. “It's like you make them [partners] in this revolution. It would be a beautiful thing. ... It would make 'em rich.”

Trump said he may meet with “all the big ones” at the White House next week to discuss the concept, though he declined to name specific companies. “We'll look into that,” he said. “We're talking about it, where the American people can benefit from the success of AI. And by doing that, they're gonna like it better.”

The proposal has been pushed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in private conversations with the Trump administration over the past year, and more recently on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reignited the conversation this week when he proposed a one-time 50% tax, paid in stock, to give the public a direct ownership stake in top AI companies. Industry advocates of the idea have discussed giving up 1-5% stakes for an AI public wealth fund.

OpenAI issued a policy paper in April titled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age” that backed a public wealth fund. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are working toward initial public offerings valued at over $1 trillion each. Anthropic and SpaceX are also expected to pursue stock offerings.

“There's so much money, and it's so big, that there are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner ... with the companies,” Trump said. “We're leading China. We're leading everybody in the world with AI, and we want to keep it that way.”

When a reporter asked Trump about the incongruity of embracing a proposal by Sanders, a democratic socialist, the president touted his economic populism. “As far as economics is concerned,” Trump said, “we have certain things that aren't that far apart. People are surprised.”

Trump’s former AI czar David Sacks opposed the idea, calling it “an acceleration of the corporate-government fusion we're already sliding toward.” In a post on X, Sacks wrote: “Conservatives rightly fear a Central Bank Digital Currency. They ought to be even more concerned about Central Government AI — a system with even more totalistic power over information, decision-making, and human behavior.”