Trump explores U.S. public stake in AI companies; major AI-related stocks rise in premarket trading

Trump said Friday his team is exploring the idea of AI companies giving the American public a stake in their firms, and plans to host a meeting with AI executives as soon as next week. Companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, and xAI would discuss the proposal at the White House.

Trump described the concept as one where the federal government "essentially becomes a partner with the companies." The proposal follows preliminary talks senior U.S. officials held with AI companies about the government potentially buying shares in their firms.

Major AI-related stocks rose in early Monday premarket trading: Nvidia gained more than 1% by 04:14 ET, Marvell and Micron rose between 4% and 7%, and AMD and Intel added more than 1%; Google fell 1.2%. The move echoes Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal to impose a one-time 50% tax on AI labs' stock, with proceeds flowing into a U.S. sovereign wealth fund.