OpenAI Offers U.S. Government $42.6 Billion Stake It Cannot Sell, Vote, or Transfer

WASHINGTON—OpenAI has proposed granting the U.S. government a 5% equity stake in the company worth approximately $42.6 billion, in what Treasury officials described this week as the largest single transfer of illiquid, non-voting, non-transferable assets from a private company to a sovereign nation since the Louisiana Purchase.

The stake, pitched directly to President Trump and two cabinet secretaries by CEO Sam Altman, cannot be sold until an initial public offering the company has delayed to at least 2027. It carries no board seat, no observer rights, and no mechanism by which the government could influence any company decision. Asked how Treasury planned to classify the holding, a department spokesperson said the shares would be recorded alongside other illiquid national assets, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, federal gold holdings, and 143 million acres of land Congress has been attempting to monetize since the 1970s.

Under the proposed arrangement, the United States government would own a larger stake in OpenAI than some of the company's earliest institutional investors, while retaining approximately the same influence over its operations.

Altman has reportedly floated extending the model to Anthropic and Google, a structure in which technology companies operating in the United States might offer the government equity stakes in exchange for a favorable regulatory environment. One economist, reached by phone, said the arrangement had a name. He declined to provide it on the record.

"This is one of the most generous offers we have seen from a private company," said a Treasury spokesperson. "We look forward to receiving our certificates."

OpenAI did not respond to questions about whether the stake includes ChatGPT Plus.