Meta is largely tuning out a suggestion from President Donald Trump that the U.S. government should forge a financial partnership with top artificial intelligence companies, the social media giant’s chief global affairs officer said Wednesday.
“Honestly, it’s just not something that I’ve spent — we’ve spent a ton of time on,” Joel Kaplan said during POLITICO’s Energy Summit in Washington when asked about the notion of the federal government taking a “sizable equity stake” in Meta or other AI developers.
“Most of the time we spend with government is talking about the policies that the government can put in place to enable the AI revolution to take place, and for us to win the battle with China,” Kaplan added. “That’s something where we felt like we’ve had quite a good partner with the White House.”
Kaplan’s comments come after Trump floated the idea last Friday of giving “pieces” of top AI firms to the American public, which the president suggested would “essentially becom[e] a partner with the companies.” While Trump did not name any companies, the leading AI companies in the U.S. include firms such as Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Trump said he planned to bring top AI executives to the White House to discuss the proposal — but as of early this week, several tech industry representatives told POLITICO the White House had yet to extend an invitation for a sit-down on the idea.
Trump’s proposal is one of several percolating in Washington that are meant to give the public a share of the massive wealth that AI is expected to generate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) floated a plan last week for a sovereign wealth fund created through a one-time 50 percent tax on the stock of top AI companies, which he said would also give the federal government a voting stake in the companies’ decisions. The idea of an AI-financed sovereign wealth fund is also backed by top executives at AI giant OpenAI, including CEO Sam Altman and Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane.
But on Wednesday, Kaplan suggested that Meta is focusing more on investments in AI-enabled technologies and less on ways to channel AI wealth to the public.
“We think the right thing is for these companies to make the investment that they’re making,” Kaplan said. “We’re all raising capital and making sure that we’re putting it to good use and investing in the infrastructure — also investing in the communities where we’re building these data centers to make sure that they benefit from the data center investment.”
“So we’re focused on how we’re spending the money and making sure that we’re building the future that everybody can participate in,” said Kaplan.
