A U.S. stake in OpenAI turns AI upside into a policy fight

The question of who captures AI’s upside is moving into U.S. industrial policy. President Donald Trump said he has spoken with AI companies about deals “where the American people can benefit from the success of AI,” and CNBC reported that the administration has discussed taking an equity stake in OpenAI.

Trump did not name a specific company in those remarks, but TechCrunch points to OpenAI as a likely candidate. One reason is OpenAI’s own Public Wealth Fund proposal, which argues that proceeds from AI-driven growth could be distributed directly to citizens so more people participate in the economic gains. That idea puts a public-ownership frame around a company that is simultaneously seeking enormous compute capacity, policy support, and a path toward an IPO.

The pressure is coming from more than one political direction. Bloomberg reported that Trump described conversations with AI executives about giving the public “pieces” of companies so Americans effectively become partners. Senator Bernie Sanders has separately proposed a one-time 50% tax, paid in stock, on companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. The numbers and mechanisms differ, but the underlying claim is similar: frontier AI may create such large private gains that the public should own part of the outcome.

This would not be an isolated move. The U.S. government already took a 10% stake in Intel last year, and AI policy is increasingly tied to data centers, energy, chips, and national competitiveness. If equity becomes part of the bargain for AI companies receiving public support or regulatory favor, labs will face a new governance question alongside safety and deployment rules. The next signal to watch is whether OpenAI turns the Public Wealth Fund idea into a concrete proposal, and whether rival AI companies are pulled into the same debate before any public listing.