OpenAI’s Request for Massive Government Bailout Package Is Pure Corporate Entitlement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — OpenAI’s request for U.S. government loan guarantees to finance AI infrastructure expansion is an unprecedented ask that would shift enormous financial risk from Silicon Valley investors to American taxpayers.
Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“OpenAI must rank among the most self-important and brazen corporations in history. Having conjured a $500 billion for-profit corporation from a nonprofit, OpenAI execs now hope that federal government subsidies can supercharge their wealth even further.
“The worrying thing is, the company seems to have discussed the prospect of federal handouts with the Trump White House and received positive signals. Given the Trump regime’s eagerness to shower taxpayer subsidies and benefits on favored corporations, it is entirely possible that OpenAI and the White House are concocting a scheme to siphon taxpayer money into OpenAI’s coffers, perhaps with some tribute paid to Trump and his family. Perhaps not so coincidentally, OpenAI President Greg Brockman was among the attendees at a dinner for donors to Trump’s White House ballroom, though neither he nor OpenAI have been reported to be actual donors.”
Public Citizen’s Big Tech accountability advocate, J.B. Branch, also commented:
“Mr. Altman and his fellow executives at OpenAI must be so completely out of touch with reality to even whisper about a massive bailout package while everyday Americans are stressed during a government shutdown. Families across the country are struggling to afford rent, groceries, and healthcare. To ask taxpayers to shoulder financial risks and underwrite a trillion-dollar gamble for a private company at a moment when the so-called ‘AI revolution’ is showing serious cracks is corporate entitlement that is as audacious as it is disgusting.
“The truth is simple: the AI bubble is swelling, and OpenAI knows it. Big Tech is building a mountain of speculative infrastructure without real-world demands or proven productivity-enhancing use cases to justify it. Now it wants the U.S. government to prop up the bubble before it bursts. This is an escape plan for an industry that has overpromised and underdelivered.”