President Donald Trump said in a TIME interview that he might take US government equity stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic, while rejecting nationalization of the AI companies. Asked about taking 10% stakes modeled on the government's Intel deal, he replied: “I might. Maybe I could do that.”

Trump said the Intel stake had made the government about $60 billion. OpenAI reportedly offered Washington a 5% stake in July, while Anthropic and the administration have denied discussing a stake in that company.

Asked what guardrails would apply if leading AI labs did bad things, Trump said: “I have a DOJ, I have an FBI.” AI researcher Gary Marcus challenged the prospect of government ownership, writing: “no way will this government properly police companies that it has a 10% equity stake in.”