OpenAI: US Gov Stake? Easing Pressure, Sharing AI Upside

OpenAI is reportedly in early talks to give the U.S. government a five percent stake in the company. This comes from a new report in the Financial Times. What's interesting is that OpenAI, valued at $854 billion, might use this as a way to ease political pressure. CEO Sam Altman has reportedly discussed the stake buy-in, arguing it would also "share the upside of AI" with the public. The White House has been increasingly involved with new AI model releases. The Trump administration reportedly asked OpenAI to stagger future releases, starting with GPT 5.6, releasing them to select partners before public launches. This move follows recent actions by the Trump administration against OpenAI competitor Anthropic. Last month, Anthropic was forced to remove its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models from public use due to an export control directive. The order was lifted after negotiations, with Anthropic agreeing to work with the U.S. government on future releases. OpenAI likely wants to avoid similar confrontations as it prepares to go public. This matters because it could influence how new AI technologies become available to everyone.