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OpenAI’s Plan to Give the US Government 5%
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Dr. Ayesha Khanna
July 04, 2026 • Reading Time: 2 minutes
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OpenAI’s Plan to Give the US Government 5%
OpenAI proposed giving the U.S. government a 5% equity stake in the company, turning Washington from a distant regulator into a small co‑owner of the AI boom.
In practice, this means the state wouldn’t just tax or police OpenAI from the outside; it would directly benefit if OpenAI’s valuation and profits surge. That reframes advanced AI from a purely private jackpot into something closer to a strategic national asset.
For policymakers, the appeal is obvious: they get a visible share of AI’s upside that can, at least in theory, be channelled into public budgets or citizen benefits.
For OpenAI, the move converts vague, open‑ended regulatory risk into a defined slice of dilution today, buying political goodwill and aligning the government’s financial interests with the company’s success.
The deeper implication is structural.
If this model spreads, frontier AI firms begin to look less like ordinary startups and more like “semi‑public infrastructure” with the state as minority shareholder. That could unlock new forms of public wealth sharing from AI, but it also raises a hard question: when the referee is in the game as an investor, how willing will it be to blow the whistle on issues like safety, competition, or misuse?
Welcome to the Hunger Games of Hiring
Business Insider recently covered a striking example of what the AI hiring market is becoming. One new OpenAI researcher, Alisa Liu, went through 57 interviews across 11 companies before landing her role.
That number sounds extreme, but I heard a similar story from a friend —candidates going through 8 rounds for a single role (albeit a senior one). The process is no longer just about capability. It is about endurance. Liu described the experience bluntly: “I was stressed, miserable, and not functioning in other parts of my life.”
What has changed is not just the number of interviews, but the structure. Candidates for technical jobs, for example, are tested across everything: machine learning depth, coding, math, research thinking, and real-world application.
At the same time, outcomes are not purely meritocratic. As Liu put it, “small choices…have an outsized impact,” and often, “you need someone inside the company to vouch for you.”
This is too much for young people going after their first job. The question is whether this system is actually identifying the best talent—or simply those with the stamina and access to navigate it.
What is the most logical next step for Interview round 11? |
AI Around The World
🇰🇷/🇺🇸 Anthropic in early talks with Samsung for custom AI chip
Anthropic is in preliminary discussions with Korea’s Samsung Electronics to manufacture a custom AI chip. The move aims to reduce reliance on Nvidia, lower inference costs, and gain more control over compute infrastructure for models like Claude.
🇨🇳 DeepSeek hits massive valuation with big funding round
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek raised over $7 billion in a round valuing the company at around $50 billion. The move signals a shift in the Chinese AI sector from aggressive price wars toward sustainable growth and profitability amid intensifying competition with US leaders.
🇦🇪 MGX closes one of the largest single-purpose AI funds ever at $49 billion
Abu Dhabi’s technology investment firm MGX closed its inaugural Fund I at $49 billion, marking one of the largest dedicated AI investment vehicles assembled. The fund backs major US frontier labs (OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI) and positions the UAE as a major global AI capital allocator.
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