President Donald Trump is considering a proposal for the U.S. government to acquire equity stakes in major artificial intelligence companies to distribute potential profits to American households.

Key Points

• President Trump confirmed discussions regarding government ownership in AI firms and plans to meet with industry leaders at the White House next week.
• The initiative may mirror OpenAI’s "Public Wealth Fund" proposal, which suggests using investment returns from AI companies to issue dividends to U.S. citizens.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have held recent meetings with administration officials regarding the potential equity-sharing framework.
• Senator Bernie Sanders has separately proposed that the government take a 50% stake in leading AI providers to ensure public benefit from the technology.
• The U.S. government recently secured equity in quantum computing firms, including a 1% stake in GlobalFoundries, as part of a $2.013 billion federal grant program.

Why it Matters

This proposal represents a significant shift in how the federal government interacts with the private technology sector by positioning the public as a direct stakeholder in AI innovation. If implemented, the policy could fundamentally alter the capital structure of major tech firms and establish a new model for distributing the economic gains of emerging technologies.