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I don’t know about this path. Rather than equity stakes, why not make companies pay ~20% of all pre-tax income to the federal government? And then instead of exercising shareholder influence, politicians and regulators could set rules on corporate conduct across industries.

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Financial Times

@FT

Jul 2

OpenAI proposes handing Trump administration 5% stake ft.trib.al/vSxbmZE

7:50 AM · Jul 2, 2026

David Watson 🥑

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because then you cant sell the equity stakes to your friends later for pennies on the dollar

Abraham Lincoln

You could even call it the “corporate tax”, really stick it to the man!!!

Trump’s equity stakes are a bad use of government money. Plus it creates a stock overhang by having a seller might liquidate the holding for god knows what reason. I don’t believe the gov’t can keep its hands off - meddling, picking “winners” just disrupts playing field.

don't be ridiculous, that would never work! would have to be 21%

Overton Defenestration

Please don’t get in the way of me applying for the role of Chief Equity Valuations Assessor at the IRS. Khosla and Thrive have nothing on me.

How about taxing only the profits given to shareholders through dividends, buybacks, and stock compensation?

What is a Distributed Profits Tax?

From taxfoundation.org

Your Fridge Therapist

I'm not sure how do you make this kind of arrangement hereditary to the emperor tho

@EpochAIResearch

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They have no income! It would be 20% of zero for the foreseeable future.

i like it. and then could create an option for the public to economically participate in the success of AI companies by allowing them to directly purchase common stock on an exchange

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Joe Weisenthal

@TheStalwart

Jun 8

Has anyone here read the new Joe Studwell book? I started it this week, and have learned a lot in just the first couple chapters. But I'm curious what people think. I haven't seen much discourse on it, maybe because it's deeply un-zeitgeisty

Then it can take 'dividends' in the form of tribute from each employees salary. Could catch on.

@chris_j_paxton

Honestly if you really want to stop penalizing companies for hiring humans and create some "ai tax" just raise corporate tax rate and get rid of payroll taxes right

New idea. Why not let corporations pay their taxes in shares and then also let corporations write off dividends as expenses. Keep the money moving

@AdmaniExplains

Same reason why companies give out a shit ton of SBC Equity is “free”

It should be a choice, a franchise 5% stake for no corporate tax.

These are very interesting ideas. Could these politicians (as you call them) maybe be selected by the people of the country intermittently so they can be held accountable?

I think they should also be forced to add said politicians and functionaries to their board.

So There I Was…

I was told that if I didn’t vote for Trump, I would be ushering in socialism. Apparently, they were right.

wrong. theyll never show income because the market values them astronomically w/out respect to actual realworld prospects. so distribute SHARES instead. and not to the govt which will simply hoard and misuse. distribute to every US citizen

Equities News Composite

joe, you're usually pretty on point. "i don't know about this path" is some half-measure bullshit. just say it. just say the words: "this is the most blatantly obviously corrupt administration in american history". be honest.

So good.

suggested a tax paid in equity in in 2021; more dynamic than a one-off equity stake. maybe limit the governance of the share class so industry governance is handled by policymakers vs govt shareholders moores.samaltman.com

It’s what led to the downfall of Theranos (imho) - giving stock to the lawyers.

That's even worse than 5% ownership. Also paying that tax applies a distortion on corporate behavior.

Indeed. The public shouldn’t have a “stake” in the exploitation of labor & the diminishment of our faculties. We do, on the other hand, have a huge interest in preventing AI companies from engaging in dangerous & exploitative practices that erode our consent, cognition & agency.

Weird headline too. Pretty sure Trump hasn’t fully privatized the US government, at least yet.

@Commonconcrete

Isn’t the federal tax rate already 21%? Sounds like you can check this one off as completed.

Evan Kirstel #B2B #TechFluencer

Because they’ll cook the books so that they never have income?

You want to add a tax to pre-tax income? What kind of marvelous mind came up with the idea to add a tax before tax and not call it a tax?

This one will hang in pride of place in the joe wing of the good twetes museum

KJ Wojciechowski

Because taxes are communist, while this way is revolutionary. Or something.

Big-Smart-Thinker

@CivNationalist

Lots of literal inbreds not knowing this is exactly how it works right now.

putting party cadres on the board seems to be working well in certain places (...it will not work in the USA though)

Because equity stakes make oligarchs more rich and the general public worse off, which is the main goal, while taxes do the opposite.

1. you can always play funny games with income 2. even then, these are capex heavy companies that probably won’t see income for years 3. LLM’s input is all of humanity’s output so the gains should be socialized

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Did someone say Whopper?

It’s harder to “pump” income.

It always seemed to me that if labor displacement happened the most practical solution was something like a VAT, as much as I dislike the idea.

@jeffreybvaughn

We don’t need the government getting or taking anything extra unless it’s to pay down debt.