Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Sam Altman are all talking about public ownership in AI - MyNorthwest.com

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman privately pressed Senator Bernie Sanders to back a plan for public ownership in AI, telling him he too wants public equity in AI firms but would not support a 50% threshold. The roughly one-hour meeting in Sanders’s Senate office followed Sanders’s proposal to seed a public wealth fund with stock that would give the public a stake in AI giants such as OpenAI. Altman said he was willing to work with Sanders to advocate broader equity even if he could not embrace the 50% figure, according to people familiar with the conversation. The exchange signals a widening political debate about AI’s costs and benefits, drawing unlikely alliances across the spectrum. President Donald Trump spoke of a potential partnership where Americans could benefit from AI’s success, saying executives would visit the White House to discuss the idea next week. The report also notes friction in Michigan, where Democrats clashed over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appearance with Altman at a data-center site, and campaigns focusing on AI regulation. Together, the coverage shows how tech power and public policy intersect as AI reshapes wealth and governance.