OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has proposed contributing 5 percent of the company’s equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, according to a Financial Times report, with a similar arrangement proposed for other AI companies. The move is described as an effort to secure goodwill with the current administration and defuse political tensions around AI concentration of ownership.
The proposal follows statements by President Trump in June confirming he had discussed arrangements under which AI companies would give the American public a direct stake in their growth, though no specific figures had been disclosed at that point. The latest talks remain preliminary, and any formal action would likely require congressional approval, adding significant complexity.
Altman has previously advocated publicly for a shared AI wealth model. OpenAI’s April policy paper, titled Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age, outlined a public fund that could invest directly in AI labs and distribute returns to citizens, framing broad participation in AI-driven economic gains as a policy goal.
A more ambitious legislative proposal came from Senator Bernie Sanders, whose American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would impose a one-time 50 percent tax on stock held by systemically important AI companies, depositing the collected shares into a public fund. Companies such as Google and SpaceX, where AI represents only part of broader operations, would be permitted to spin off non-AI divisions to reduce their tax exposure. The bill has not yet advanced to committee.
