Trump eyes AI riches with government stakes

Trump eyes AI riches with government stakes

President Trump is considering a plan that would give the U.S. government direct stakes in leading AI companies, putting him in unusual alignment with some of his fiercest critics.

© AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool

The president confirmed earlier this month he is considering “concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner.”

But versions of this idea have also found support among the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Anthropic and OpenAI, bringing together a surprising contingent as politicians and the AI industry alike grapple with the vast wealth the technology is expected to create.

Reports emerged in early June that the Trump administration was in preliminary talks with AI companies about taking equity stakes. When asked about this, Trump said he was set to meet with tech executives in the “near future” to discuss the idea.

“We’re talking about giving back something to the public,” he later added. “And if we do that, the public will become very rich, the people in our country, because that’s the kind of money we’re talking about. And I think they’ll do that, and I think it’ll make it very popular.”

The concept isn’t entirely novel for the president, who has taken stakes in more than 20 companies in his second term.

Trump himself pointed to the nearly 10 percent stake the government took in Intel last August when discussing the possibility of equity in AI firms.

“With Trump … it’s about deals,” Tad DeHaven, a policy analyst on general economic issues for the Cato Institute, told The Hill. “This is government by dealmaking, government by transaction.”

“At the end of the day, that’s how the president views the world,” he added. “He is transactional, he is deal-based. And the purpose is here again, for whatever the White House says about taxpayer upside and supply strengthening supply chains, it’s really about the president exercising leverage, power and control.”

Check out the full report at TheHill.com.

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