Donald Trump’s government is reportedly in talks with OpenAI for a 5% stake in the company.

The move comes as Trump faces backlash over financial dealings that reportedly resulted in him receiving $2.2 billion after returning to the White House.

The billionaire politician has been accused of using his office as president to enrich himself and his family, but he characteristically dismissed the claims in a chat with reporters.

Donald Trump Government Could Share In OpenAI Windfall

OpenAI, the developer of the famous AI chatbot ChatGPT, has proposed a landmark agreement to give the U.S. government a 5% equity stake in the company.

According to a Financial Times report released Thursday, the deal’s conceptual framework could also require leading American AI developers, including rivals Anthropic, Google, and Meta, to cede a similar 5% stake to Washington.

The proposal is supposedly intended to allow the public to share in the vast economic upside of the AI revolution, but it has drawn backlash from many quarters, as it threatens thousands of American jobs and livelihoods and carries far-reaching implications for national security.

The proposed holding, calculated against the mouth-watering $852 billion valuation OpenAI established in its March funding round, would be worth an estimated $42.6 billion.

OpenAI CEO Pushes Public Wealth Fund Idea

According to sources familiar with the discussions, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and some of the company’s executives pitched the concept directly to President Trump and his cabinet.

Back in April, the company argued for a “public wealth fund,” which “provides every citizen – including those not invested in financial markets – with a stake in AI-driven economic growth.”

They suggested that AI companies allocate 5% of their equity to a state-run vehicle modeled after the Alaska Permanent Fund, which has historically invested state oil revenues and distributed direct dividends to the state government and citizens.

By offering the government equity, OpenAI appears to be taking a page from recent tech history. In August 2025, the Trump administration took a 10% stake in chipmaker Intel in exchange for federal backing, an investment worth $8.9 billion.

Rival AI Firms May Not Back The Proposal

According to the Financial Times report, it remains entirely unclear whether other AI companies support the proposal or would willingly hand over billions in equity to the federal government.

Furthermore, executing a sovereign-wealth-style vehicle of this magnitude would likely require an act of Congress, so it is not certain the deal will take place.

Regulation in the industry has been a major focus for the Trump administration, even as American leadership in AI and other advanced technology remains a priority for the government.

Washington has grown increasingly concerned about the national security, labor, and cybersecurity risks associated with next-generation models, particularly as low-cost Chinese open-source alternatives rapidly advance.

OpenAI And Anthropic Face New Restrictions

The government’s tightening grip on the sector continues to disrupt major product timelines. An insider told CNN last month that the Trump administration requested that OpenAI restrict the public launch of its highly anticipated GPT-5.6 model to a small number of government-approved partners due to its advanced capabilities.

The government also issued an export control directive that forced competitor Anthropic to temporarily disable public access to its advanced “Mythos” and “Fable” models, citing concerns about their cybersecurity capabilities and potential safety risks.

It was not until recently that the company announced the government had lifted export controls on the models following negotiations with officials.

According to the news outlet, a White House official said the government will continue “to collaborate with frontier AI labs to develop shared approaches for addressing the challenges of scaling this technology.”

Amazon Pulls Plug On Sam Altman Movie

Elsewhere, Amazon has decided not to release “Artificial,” the nearly finished Luca Guadagnino-directed film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and his dramatic, albeit temporary, ouster from the company in 2023.

The movie, which stars Andrew Garfield as Altman, reportedly paints the OpenAI CEO as a manipulative figure who steered the ChatGPT maker away from its nonprofit roots in pursuit of power and wealth. Amazon confirmed that the film will instead be shopped to other studios, saying it believes the project would be “better served” elsewhere.

The decision was reportedly made after Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios chief Mike Hopkins watched a cut of the film and felt its tone had become much darker than expected.

The move has raised questions because Amazon is deeply involved in the AI race and recently struck a major partnership with OpenAI.