The US government under President Donald Trump is preparing a change of course in digital and economic policy. Discussions are underway in the White House about government participation in leading companies in the AI sector, as reported by Bloomberg, CNBC and Politico, among others. The aim is to establish a national welfare fund that will allow the population to participate in the financial success of the AI revolution. Trump said he would meet with the heads of industry leaders in Washington next week to discuss a formal partnership between the executive branch and the tech industry.
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This idea has been being pushed behind the scenes for some time. According to insider reports, Sam Altman, head of the industry leader OpenAI, has been in negotiations with the Trump administration about such a model for over a year. Accordingly, the CEO proposed the concept of state participation in 2025.
At its core, his plan calls for OpenAI to transfer company shares to the state. These shares are intended to serve as the basis for a public asset fund. OpenAI itself published a corresponding position paper in which it outlined a “public wealth fund”. Proceeds should be distributed to the citizens.
Trump’s calculation and the bipartisan alliance
Trump confirmed the approach on Friday on board Air Force One: There are promising concepts in which parts of the immense wealth generated by artificial intelligence could be returned to the American public. In this way, the population essentially becomes a partner of the companies. He has already spoken about this with all relevant players in the industry.
Trump also hopes that direct financial participation from voters will give him more support among the population for himself and the technology. There is great skepticism in the country, as many fear that the rapid development of AI will cause profound disruptions to the labor market and threaten the existence of job losses. Resistance to building ever new data centers for data-hungry AI is growing.
In principle, the idea has bipartisan support. In addition to representatives of the tech elite such as Anthropic and xAI founder Elon Musk, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders has also introduced a bill that would provide for a 50 percent state stake in certain AI companies. Such a fund wouldn’t be about peanuts: OpenAI and its competitor Anthropic are facing potential IPOs in which the companies could be valued at well over a trillion US dollars each.
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Resistance from within our own ranks
But the plan is also encountering resistance, especially from Trump’s conservative and anti-regulation environment. David Sacks, his former AI special representative, warns of a dangerous merger between the state and large corporations. According to him, conservatives should particularly fear state-controlled AI. Such a system would have totalitarian power over information, human behavior and social decision-making processes. Critics also point out that there is a risk of conflicts of interest if the state is supposed to regulate an industry in which it is a major shareholder.
Just a few months ago, Trump signed a decree establishing a state sovereignty fund. During his second term in office, the state took strategic stakes in tech companies such as Intel and IBM. The Republican also signed an instruction to the security authorities to accelerate the introduction of advanced AI models. The operators should submit such systems to the state in advance.
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