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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has proposed giving 5% of the company\u2019s equity to a U.S. sovereign wealth fund, the Financial Times reported on Thursday<\/a>, citing two people familiar with the matter. Under the proposal, other AI companies would donate similar stakes, although significant questions remain about the specifics.<\/p>\n According to the FT\u2019s reporting, the donation would be meant to \u201csecure good relations with the administration and\u00a0\u2026 address political blowback.\u201d<\/p>\n Similar discussions were reported by CNBC in June<\/a> and were subsequently confirmed by President Trump, who said he had discussed \u201cconcepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies.\u201d At the time, no specific size for the proposed equity stake was given.<\/p>\n The talks remain preliminary and, per the FT, it\u2019s likely that any formal action would require congressional approval, which would significantly complicate the matter.<\/p>\n The idea of a public AI fund has also been publicly discussed by Altman, and OpenAI has grown increasingly specific in its proposals for how such a fund could be structured. Most recently, a policy paper titled \u201cIndustrial Policy for the Intelligence Age<\/a>,\u201d released by OpenAI in April, proposed a public wealth fund that could invest directly in AI labs and companies deploying their technology.<\/p>\n \u201cReturns from the Fund could be distributed directly to citizens, allowing more people to participate directly in the upside of AI-driven growth, regardless of their starting wealth or access to capital,\u201d the document reads. <\/p>\n A more aggressive version of the policy was proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-VT) in June, calling for a one-time 50% tax on AI company stock, with the collected shares being deposited into a public wealth fund. The bill, called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would apply to all \u201csystemically important\u201d AI companies, including those dealing with 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 portions of the company to avoid taxation.<\/p>\n The bill has yet to advance to committee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n