Trump Weighs Government Equity in AI Firms for Public Fund

The Trump administration is advancing talks that could give the federal government ownership stakes in leading AI companies, with returns potentially distributed to the public through a wealth fund. The discussions, involving OpenAI and other labs, coincide with separate efforts to tighten controls on gene synthesis to limit AI-assisted biological risks.

President Trump described the concept in remarks last week, noting that pieces of major AI firms could be transferred so the American public becomes a partner. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first raised the idea with the administration in early 2025. No agreement has been reached, and any arrangement would rely on voluntary share donations rather than new legislation.

The same week, Altman joined Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and 85 other experts in signing an open letter urging mandatory screening of commercial DNA synthesis orders. The letter highlights how AI tools could help design novel genetic sequences that evade current voluntary checks, increasing the chance of pathogen misuse.

Administration officials have not linked the equity talks to the biosecurity letter. The equity proposal remains informal, with no congressional authorization or governance rules yet defined. The gene-synthesis recommendations reference an existing bipartisan bill that would give the Commerce Department one year to set federal screening standards.

Critics of the equity approach warn that selective stakes in favored firms could create conflicts of interest and shield companies from regulation. Supporters argue a diversified public fund could offset AI-driven shifts in income from labor to capital without the evasion problems of corporate taxation. The biosecurity letter avoids direct regulation of AI models themselves and focuses instead on downstream DNA providers.

No finalized policy has emerged from either track. The equity discussions predate recent public comments but lack the formal structure of an earlier February directive on sovereign wealth funds. The gene-synthesis recommendations build on two decades of voluntary industry practices that have recorded no confirmed misuse cases to date.