President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is talking with the leaders of the largest artificial-intelligence companies about having the government acquire “pieces” of their firms.
It could prove to be among the most significant federal interventions in the private sector in modern history.
The president’s comment confirmed NOTUS reporting that he has been discussing the idea with tech executives for more than a year. He said he is aiming to invite “all of them” to the White House as soon as next week.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has talked to Trump about having shares of AI companies, including his own, voluntarily ceded to the government. The resulting investment could yield dividends that would be paid out to the American public through the government.
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“There’s so much money, it’s so big. There are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public where the American public essentially becomes a partner with the companies,” Trump said. “The American people can benefit from the success of AI — and if they do that, they’re going to like it better.”
Asked whether this partnership could take the form of dividend payments, the president said he was considering the idea.
“We’ll see … you make them a partnership in this revolution [and] it would be a beautiful thing,” Trump said.
Skeptics have offered a range of criticisms of the proposal. Some have argued that federal involvement in the AI firms would stifle their innovation and growth. Others, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), have said the plan should go further, and that the government should acquire control over the companies by taking at least 50% of their shares.
Spokespeople for Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether they would attend the meeting with the president. Trump said “all” the large AI companies would have representatives at the meeting, but did not respond to shouted questions asking which were included.
A person familiar with the matter previously told NOTUS that Anthropic is not having conversations with the administration about providing equity to the government.
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