OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed giving 5% of the company’s equity to a US sovereign wealth fund, the Financial Times reported on Thursdayciting two people familiar with the matter. Under the proposal, other AI companies would donate similar stakes, though significant questions remain about the details.
According to the FT report, the donation will be intended to “ensure good relations with the administration and … counter the political blow”.
Similar discussions took place CNBC reported in June and then confirmed by President Trump, who said he had discussed “concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies.” At the time, no specific size was given for the proposed stake.
The talks remain preliminary and, according to the FT, it is likely that any formal action would require congressional approval, which would complicate matters significantly.
The idea of a public AI fund has also been discussed publicly by Altman, and OpenAI has become increasingly specific in its proposals for how such a fund could be structured. More recently, a policy paper entitled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,” released by OpenAI in April, proposed a public investment fund that could invest directly in AI labs and companies developing their technology.
“Returns from the Fund could be distributed directly to citizens, allowing more people to directly participate in the upward development of AI, regardless of their initial wealth or access to capital,” the paper says.
A more aggressive version of the policy was proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in June, calling for a one-time tax of 50% on the company’s AI shares, with the shares raised to be deposited into a public asset fund. The bill, called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would apply to all “systemically important” AI companies, including those involved in data centers, infrastructure or robotics. Under the proposal, companies like Google and SpaceX that include AI as only part of their business would be allowed to spin off non-AI parts of the company to avoid taxation.
The bill has not yet been tabled in committee.
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