OpenAI chief Sam Altman (left) is proposing Donald Trump’s administration take a 5pc stake in the company – Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
OpenAI is considering handing a 5pc stake worth $43bn (£32bn) to the US government as part of plans to boost ties with Donald Trump.
Sam Altman, the ChatGPT maker’s chief executive, has put forward the offer in recent discussions with the White House in anticipation of a $1tn stock market listing, according to the Financial Times.
Mr Trump has previously confirmed discussions with the major AI companies about the US taxpayer obtaining stakes in them, saying it would be a “beautiful thing” that would make the public rich.
Such a deal would be designed to give the US taxpayer more of a financial interest in AI amid a backlash over the technology’s effect on jobs and the proliferation of data centres.
Mr Altman has previously proposed a public wealth fund that would hold stakes in AI companies such as OpenAI.
OpenAI is currently valued at $852bn, meaning a 5pc stake would be worth $43bn. However, it is targeting a valuation of $1tn in an upcoming New York flotation.
Mr Trump has repeatedly expressed support for the idea of obtaining stakes in OpenAI and other companies such as Anthropic and Google.
“There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public,” he said last month. “You make them [partners] in this revolution. It would be a beautiful thing. It would make them rich.”
The US government took a 10pc stake in the chipmaker Intel last year. It was then worth $9bn but is now worth more than $60bn and Mr Trump has boasted about making tens of billions of dollars for the US public.
Members of the Trump administration have proposed different ways of handling the stakes.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said Mr Trump favours holding them in a sovereign wealth fund, while others have suggested that shares could sit in “Trump accounts”, investment accounts for children being set up by the US president.
Bernie Sanders, the Left-wing senator, has said the public should have a 50pc stake in the companies.
The White House originally took a hands-off approach to AI but has become increasingly interventionist in recent months, blocking the release of Anthropic’s most powerful systems and forcing OpenAI to limit who can use its latest models.
Such moves have taken place amid growing competition from China.
Anthropic, meanwhile, has suggested special taxes on the AI sector that would grant a “digital dividend” to the public.
OpenAI was approached for comment.