Will the Trump Admin Make OpenAI Its Lucky 31st Investment and Bailout Softbank?
Will the former leader in Large Language Model (LLM) generative AI join the other 30 companies in which the Trump Regime has invested federal money?
Earlier this month OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that the US government take a 5% ownership stake in the spectacularly unprofitable tech company. Will the former leader in Large Language Model (LLM) generative AI join the other 30 companies in which the Trump Regime has invested federal money?
A Bold Proposal From Scam Altman
Regular readers might recall that not long ago, OpenAI and Amazon were involved in encouraging the Trump admin to crack down on rival Anthropic in a fairly nasty family blogging.
The Financial Times had the details on July 1 (archived):
OpenAI has discussed giving a 5 per cent stake to the US government as the $852bn AI start-up seeks to clear political obstacles by securing financial buy-in from the Trump administration.
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The proposed arrangement would involve other US AI companies handing over a similar stake, although it is not clear if the other labs would be willing to do so.Giving the government an ownership stake could help secure good relations with the administration and would mark an attempt to address political blowback by sharing the wealth generated by AI with the public.
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OpenAI and its chief rival Anthropic have recently both had the release of their cutting-edge models held up by US scrutiny, while some Republicans and advisers to President Donald Trump favour much tighter regulation of the sector.
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Altman and other OpenAI executives have suggested that each of America’s leading AI developers allot 5 per cent of their equity to a vehicle like the Alaska Permanent Fund, a sovereign fund that invests the state’s oil wealth into stocks and pays dividends to the state government and residents.
These companies might include Anthropic as well as Google, Meta and others, although it is not clear any of these groups would agree with OpenAI’s proposal.
You’ve got to hand it to Sam Altman; he’s got great comic timing.
