By Amrith Ramkumar, Berber Jin and Keach Hagey

WASHINGTON -- Senior U.S. officials have discussed having the federal government take stakes in major artificial-intelligence companies, according to people familiar with the matter, after OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman pitched the idea to the administration last year.

Such a move would allow the government to share in the potential economic upside of the fast-evolving technology, give the AI companies a stamp of approval from those in charge of regulating their models and potentially temper rising anxiety about the economic fallout of the AI revolution as several AI companies prepare to go public. But any potential partnerships could also expose the U.S. government to possible volatility of the AI market.

Some AI executives have warned that their powerful new tools could upend how people live and work and ultimately transform the labor market. Silicon Valley has floated a variety of proposals for how society could adapt to the new economic realities of the AI era, including the creation of shared income for the masses to the creation of a sovereign-wealth fund.

Altman met yesterday with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who has said he plans to introduce legislation that would transfer 50% of the equity of the top AI companies to a public fund.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Altman has long toyed with the idea of getting the federal government involved with OpenAI, asking if it would be interested in funding the AI lab years before ChatGPT launched. In April, his company proposed creating a public wealth fund that would invest in AI companies and distribute the economic benefits to the broader public.

The proposal called for the wealth fund's profits to be given directly to citizens, allowing more people to benefit from the upside of the technology's growth, including those not invested in the financial markets.

Altman has floated the idea of a program that might work like the Trump accounts, the people said. The accounts are a new type of IRA for children that parents can set up when they file their taxes.

Senior government officials have preliminarily discussed taking direct stakes in AI developers since early last year as part of a broader effort to take a more active role in the private sector. The Trump administration has announced direct investments in at least 10 companies, including the chip maker Intel, and signed an executive order earlier this week that increases its oversight over the AI industry.

OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar last year floated the possibility of the government backing loans tied to data centers. Altman later said the company doesn't want federal loan guarantees, and Friar said the company wasn't seeking help for its infrastructure commitments but was talking about a broader framework for an industrywide build-out.

The news outlet Notus earlier reported on the equity stake discussions.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a content-licensing partnership with OpenAI.

Write to Amrith Ramkumar at amrith.ramkumar@wsj.com, Berber Jin at berber.jin@wsj.com and Keach Hagey at Keach.Hagey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 04, 2026 23:18 ET (03:18 GMT)

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