Dave Jimenez
OpenAI has floated giving the US government a stake worth roughly $43 billion, equal to 5 percent of its current $852 billion valuation, as Sam Altman works to align the company with the Trump administration ahead of a planned initial public offering that could value OpenAI at $1 trillion. The proposal, reported by the Financial Times, marks the most concrete step yet toward turning political rhetoric about public AI ownership into an actual equity arrangement.
At a Glance
- OpenAI's current valuation stands at $852 billion; a 5 percent stake equals about $43 billion.
- A New York listing is being targeted at a $1 trillion valuation.
- The US government already holds a 10 percent stake in Intel, worth about $9 billion when acquired and over $60 billion now.
- Vice President JD Vance has suggested a sovereign wealth fund as the holding vehicle; other officials have floated Trump accounts for children.
- Anthropic has proposed a digital dividend funded by AI industry taxes instead of direct equity stakes.
How the Numbers Compare to the Intel Precedent
The Intel stake offers the closest template for what a government position in OpenAI might look like. Washington's 10 percent holding in the chipmaker has more than sixfolded in value, from roughly $9 billion to over $60 billion, giving Trump a talking point about taxpayer returns from equity in strategic tech firms. If OpenAI's valuation does reach $1 trillion at listing, a 5 percent stake acquired at the current $852 billion mark would already be sitting on unrealized gains of roughly $5 billion before any shares trade publicly. That math is almost certainly part of why Altman raised the offer now rather than after the IPO prices.
Why Altman Is Making the Offer Now
Timing matters here. OpenAI needs regulatory goodwill and reduced friction heading into a listing of this scale, and Trump has openly discussed taking equity in AI companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google as a way to convert what he calls an
Carlos Dixon
