The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Karen Kwok

NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Artificial intelligence is creating wealth for Silicon Valley and anxiety elsewhere. OpenAI boss Sam Altman wants to bridge the gap by giving Americans a stake in the boom. The solution is both timely and worrying. Spreading the wealth could ease brewing AI backlash. Yet doing so by handing a stake directly to the White House would set up a dangerous codependency between AI labs and the government meant to regulate them.

Altman has repeatedly raised the idea of Washington taking a stake in AI leaders. On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he may meet the industry’s leading lights to discuss the plan. The political angle is easy to grasp. Voters are increasingly wary of artificial intelligence, and particularly the data centers vital to its growth. Only 26% of Americans support increased server-farm construction, pollster Public Trust found in June.

With the likes of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warning starkly about potential white-collar job losses, it’s little wonder that the public sees a future where technology companies get richer as average workers’ lives become more precarious. In April, a Gallup poll showed just 18% of Americans aged 14 to 29 felt hopeful about AI. Meta Platforms META.O and other tech giants have shown little sentimentality when cutting staff.

In an April white paper, OpenAI proposed a public wealth fund, giving citizens a direct stake in AI-driven growth. A publicly held interest in the industry could reap literal dividends for taxpayers or be leveraged to fund investment. The question is where this stake comes from. After all, forcing AI companies to issue new shares would dilute existing investors, like Altman’s backers Microsoft MSFT.O and SoftBank 9984.T.

Conveniently, OpenAI's recent corporate reshuffle left a huge pool of value in its nonprofit arm, which now holds 26% of the core for-profit company. Handing some of that to the public would be a clever peace offering. At OpenAI’s most recent valuation of $852 billion, the stake would be worth about $222 billion. Donating even part of it would give Washington something tangible to show voters while insulating private backers.

This would put unusual power in the hands of the White House if it happens outside of an existing authority legislated by Congress. And while it may buy goodwill, it doesn’t solve the harder problem of regulating AI and its potential existential risks. Instead, it offers a financial incentive to the government to simply promote OpenAI’s interests. In the long run, the public might yet sour on a bargain that substitutes Altman’s priorities for theirs.

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CONTEXT NEWS

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on June 5 that his team is looking into the idea of AI companies giving the American public a ​stake in their firms, adding that he planned to host a meeting with AI executives.

In an April white paper, leading model-maker OpenAI proposed a “public wealth fund" holding assets that "capture growth" in AI companies.