OpenAI in Talks to Give US Government a 5% Equity Stake

According to the Financial Times, OpenAI has entered preliminary talks to give the Trump administration a 5% equity stake, potentially routed through a US sovereign wealth fund, as a way to ease mounting political pressure in Washington. CNBC reported the proposal is framed as addressing "political blowback," and the structure could eventually be extended to other frontier labs including Anthropic and Google.

The mechanics remain vague — no valuation, share class, or governance terms have been disclosed — but the timing is pointed, landing amid the export-control suspensions and government access-gating that have reshaped how frontier models reach the market. A government equity stake would formalize the deepening entanglement between Washington and the AI labs it also regulates.

The reaction was skeptical across the board. One analyst called the move "brilliant PR" but warned it "creates exactly the wrong incentives — the government's job is to break monopolies, not co-own them," citing moral hazard and regulatory capture. On Reddit, the r/singularity thread drew 498 upvotes and r/OpenAI 305, with commenters split between viewing it as pragmatic and viewing it as corrosive.

Separately, OpenAI faces a new lawsuit from a California man with bipolar disorder alleging ChatGPT fueled delusions that led to self-harm; OpenAI says it trains ChatGPT to recognize distress and direct users to real-world support. Watch whether the equity talks advance to a formal term sheet — and whether Anthropic or Google are drawn in.