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OpenAI Pitches Giving the US Government a 5% Stake and an Alaska-Style National AI Dividend Fund
Ep. 109 03:37

OpenAI Pitches Giving the US Government a 5% Stake and an Alaska-Style National AI Dividend Fund

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About This Episode

OpenAI has held early talks to hand the US government a 5% equity stake, worth about $42.6 billion, and Sam Altman proposed that every leading US AI lab contribute the same share into a public wealth fund modeled on Alaska's Permanent Fund, which pays annual dividends to residents. Altman raised it with Trump, Commerce Secretary Lutnick, and Treasury Secretary Bessent; the FT called the talks conceptual and early-stage.

Our Take

A billionaire AI CEO offering the public a 5% cut of the machines reframes the central question of the abundance era — will AI's value flow to shareholders or to every citizen as a dividend.