AI Labs Offer Stakes to Stay in the Game

A 5% holding would be worth roughly $42.6 billion, after OpenAI closed a record-breaking funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. That is the price Sam Altman is reportedly willing to hand the U.S. government to keep building frontier AI without constant regulatory interference, the Financial Times reported Thursday. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that giving the public a financial interest in the company is the best way to share the upside of AI , according to two people familiar with the talks.

The proposal is not just about OpenAI. The arrangement envisions other U.S. AI companies, such as Anthropic, Google and Meta, ceding similar stakes to the government through a sovereign wealth fund vehicle , the FT said. Whether any of them will agree is unclear. But the timing tells you everything you need to know about who holds the cards. The White House requested that OpenAI limit the release of its upcoming GPT 5.6 model to a small number of government-approved partners because of its advanced capabilities , a source told CNN last month. Anthropic had disabled access to its most advanced Mythos and Fable models last month to comply with an export control directive from the government. Both companies are now negotiating from a position of weakness.

Can You Buy Your Way Out of Regulation?

Pressure has been mounting on major U.S. AI firms as Washington grows increasingly wary of cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with their models and rising competition from Chinese open-source models that are proving to be almost as capable and significantly cheaper than some of the top American models. The government's leverage is real. It can delay model releases. It can impose export controls. It can demand safety reviews that stretch for months. And it has done all three in the past six weeks.

Trump has described the U.S. taking an ownership stake in AI giants as "a beautiful thing" that would make Americans "partners in this revolution." The administration has precedent. The government obtained a 10% stake in Intel after a landmark $8.9 billion investment in the chipmaker's common stock in August last year. That stake is now worth far more. Last year, it took a roughly 10% stake in Intel and a 15% holding in MP Materials, among others.

But there is a difference between taking equity in a struggling chipmaker and taking it from the most valuable private company in the world. Sanders filed the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in June, seeking 50% of the voting shares of U.S. AI companies through a fund his office valued at $7 trillion, enough to pay every American a $1,000 annual dividend. Altman's 5% offer looks modest by comparison. It may also be a floor, not a ceiling. In May, President Donald Trump said he should have asked for a bigger stake in the company.

The question is not whether Washington wants a piece of OpenAI. It is whether Washington can own that piece and still regulate the company at arm's length. A government with $42.6 billion riding on OpenAI's success has a financial incentive to let it grow. That may be exactly what Altman is counting on.

While OpenAI Negotiates, Anthropic Builds

Anthropic is taking a different route. The Information reported Thursday that the US AI model developer is considering using Samsung's 2-nanometer foundry process and advanced packaging facilities to manufacture its own high-end chips. The talks are early. The discussions are still at an early stage, and Anthropic is speaking with multiple chip design firms , the report said. But the direction is clear.

Anthropic has hired Clive Chan, who previously helped build OpenAI's custom chip programme , a signal that the company is moving from exploration to active development. Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate surpassed 30 billion dollars earlier this year, more than tripling from roughly nine billion dollars at the end of 2025 , a growth rate that makes the economics of custom silicon increasingly attractive.

The Samsung talks triggered an 8% rally in the Korean chipmaker's shares on Friday, according to MarketWatch. The spike in South Korea's largest company triggered a 5.75% rally in the Kospi benchmark and ended a wild, rollercoaster week for the index with a rousing finale.

Just over a month after Samsung participated in the latest funding round for Anthropic, media outlet The Information reported that the Korean company would produce bespoke chips for the artificial intelligence frontier research lab at its next-generation foundry.

A deal would mark another high-profile customer win for Samsung's foundry business, which is trying to narrow the gap with TSMC in advanced logic chips and return to profit after years of losses. For Anthropic, it is a hedge. Custom chips reduce dependence on Nvidia. They also reduce dependence on Washington's goodwill. If the government can block model releases, it cannot block chips you already own.

What Changed This Week

OpenAI formalized what had been a year of quiet conversations into a concrete proposal: 5% equity for regulatory breathing room. Anthropic moved from considering custom chips in April to active hiring and manufacturing talks with Samsung. Both companies are preparing for IPOs that could value them north of $1 trillion, according to eWeek, making regulatory goodwill more valuable than ever. And Washington made clear it will use export controls, model delays, and safety reviews as leverage until it gets what it wants—whether that is equity, oversight, or both.

What to Watch

The FT characterized the discussions as conceptual and early-stage, and reported that implementing any deal might require an act of Congress. That means the OpenAI proposal could take months to materialize, if it happens at all. Watch whether Google, Meta, or xAI signal any willingness to participate in an industry-wide fund. On the hardware side, watch whether Anthropic's Samsung talks produce a formal manufacturing agreement—and whether that triggers similar moves by other labs. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing for stock market listings, which would allow the public to buy shares in the companies and also lift the veil on their finances. Those filings, expected later this year, will clarify how much leverage Washington actually has.