Senior U.S. officials have held preliminary conversations with leading artificial intelligence companies about the government taking ownership stakes in those businesses, according to a NOTUS report that cited people familiar with the matter.
Sources told NOTUS that the discussions emphasized voluntary transfers of company shares to the government rather than compulsory measures. The report identified OpenAI as one firm whose leadership engaged on the topic. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, reportedly discussed the idea with senior officials in the Trump administration. NOTUS said that Anthropic, the maker of the Claude AI model, was not involved in talks concerning a government equity stake.
The report said returns from any such government investments could be directed toward public purposes. One specific example cited was distributing dividend payments to American households, though the NOTUS report did not provide further detail on mechanisms or timing for such distributions.
The conversations occurred as both OpenAI and Anthropic are taking steps toward public listings. The ChatGPT developer is preparing to file confidentially for an initial public offering, while Anthropic confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO on Monday, according to the report.
The NOTUS coverage did not include estimates of potential stake sizes, valuation levels, or timelines for any government purchases. It also did not indicate whether additional companies beyond OpenAI had been engaged in these early-stage discussions. Details about how proceeds would be collected, administered, or legally distributed to households were not provided in the report.
This account is limited to the elements described above and reflects the details as reported by NOTUS, which attributed the information to people familiar with the matter.