Sam Altman is back with his favorite promise: that Americans will get a piece of the AI pie. The Financial Times reports that OpenAI's CEO is in talks with President Trump about handing the US government a 5% stake in the company. This isn't new - Altman has been floating variations since 2021, and Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a 50% stake in top AI firms. The logic? AI trains on human work without paying up, and a safety net might soothe fears of job-killing robots. Let's do the math: OpenAI was valued at $852 billion in March, so 5% is about $42.6 billion. Split among 133 million US households, that's roughly $320 per family - enough for a nice dinner, if you're optimistic. But the government might hoard it in a wealth fund, doling out returns only if AI companies ever turn a profit (which they haven't yet). For OpenAI, the real prize might be staying in Trump's good graces, avoiding supply chain risks, and getting help against Chinese rivals. Still, this plan feels more like a story than a policy - Altman has been pitching it for five years with no concrete result. The idea, inspired by Alaska's oil fund, suggests AI is a shared resource. Altman would add that it's an infinite one - but whether you ever see a check, the message is: trust us, the boom will be big enough to share.