Trump is Transforming America into a Fund

By: Jia Liu, Rising Voices

On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, Trump is transforming America into a fund.

Last Monday, just minutes before the U.S. stock market opened, Trump sat in the Oval Office with a camera in front of him. The opening bells of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ were brought to the White House, where he rang them remotely. As the bell rang, he told the camera that with the opening bell, these accounts would grow alongside our thriving economy, and in just this week, $800 million in new capital would be invested in the stock market for America's children.

This was the first trading day after the launch of the "Trump Account." Two days earlier, on July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, he gave a birthday gift to all newborns in the country: an investment account named after him, containing $1,000, which would automatically buy U.S. stocks. Six million children had registered before the launch.

In the same week, his Treasury Department was dealing with another matter: $39 trillion in national debt, with interest payments alone exceeding $1 trillion in the fiscal year 2026, averaging $170 million per day. Every day, the Treasury has to find ways to repay the interest left over from yesterday.

In the past 18 months, this president, who came from a real estate background, has done three seemingly unrelated things: the government directly investing in companies, opening investment accounts for newborns, and securing equity in AI companies, but they all point to the same goal: to deeply bind the U.S. stock market with the fate of the nation.

### The $39 Trillion Debt of the Hawks

The starting point of this game is not ambition, but anxiety.

As of May 2026, the total U.S. national debt has exceeded $39 trillion, approaching $40 trillion. The scale of debt has surpassed the entire economy of the United States, with the debt-to-GDP ratio at about 123%. Approximately $5 billion in new national debt is added daily. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that in the fiscal year 2026, interest payments alone will exceed $1 trillion, accounting for nearly 14% of total federal spending, higher than the defense budget. For every dollar the federal government receives, it spends $1.33. Huatai Securities estimates that the deficit in the fiscal year 2026 could reach $2.2 trillion, with a deficit rate rising to 7%.

To solve the anxiety over U.S. national debt, there are traditionally three solutions: raise taxes, cut spending, or inflate the debt, which means letting prices rise to dilute the actual debt.

The first two solutions are politically suicidal before the midterm elections, and the Trump administration will certainly not consider them. The third solution requires cooperation from the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, to lower interest rates, but former Chairman Powell, even when threatened by Trump with legal trouble, has refused to back down. The then-chairman, Waller, would clearly find it very unseemly to announce a rate cut in the current economic situation.

So Trump needs to find a new path.

And we all know that Trump's way of solving problems comes from a lifetime in business. Real estate developers look at balance sheets differently than politicians: if the liabilities can't be moved, then expand the assets. On the past balance sheet of the U.S. government, there are $39 trillion in liabilities, clearly visible; however, the asset side is murky, with almost no financial assets that can be priced at market value under the federal government.

So Trump's solution is to first use the powers the government has: subsidies, grants, government orders, export controls, and regulatory powers as costs and bargaining chips to acquire low-priced shares in large companies.

The first company Trump targeted was Intel.

On August 22, 2025, the U.S. government announced it would acquire 9.9% of Intel, one of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, for $8.9 billion, at $20.47 per share, becoming the largest single shareholder of the chip giant. The brilliance of the transaction lies in the source of the funds: $5.7 billion comes from the semiconductor industry subsidy bill "CHIPS Act" passed in 2022, which was originally intended to be given to Intel as subsidies, and $3.2 billion comes from federal grants for security chip projects. In other words, the government did not spend a single new dollar; it paid with "checks that were supposed to be given away" and received substantial equity in return.

Trump himself was very proud, announcing on his social media platform Truth Social in all capital letters: "I paid zero for Intel, which is worth about $11 billion, all belongs to America."

Later, in a public setting discussing this transaction, he mentioned the negotiation process with Intel's CEO, Pat Gelsinger. Gelsinger, a Malaysian-American, became Intel's CEO in March 2025, having previously served as CEO of the chip design software company Cadence for 12 years. Trump said Intel agreed too readily, "It should have been more." Some criticized this approach as shameful, to which he responded, "It's not shameful; it's called business." When asked if government equity in private companies would become the norm, he replied, "Aren't tariffs the same?"

Perhaps to commemorate this good start, White House economic advisor Hassett even named this transaction: "The Down Payment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund."

A sovereign wealth fund is an institution where the government invests public funds as long-term capital, with Singapore and Abu Dhabi having such funds, usually accumulated from oil or resource revenues, but the U.S. has never had one. In February 2025, Trump signed an executive order requiring Commerce Secretary Raimondo and Treasury Secretary Yellen to come up with a plan for its establishment within 90 days, but due to legal, funding, and political obstacles, the grand narrative version of this so-called "U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund" was shelved.

However, the Intel transaction clearly sent a signal: the shell of the U.S. sovereign fund has not been "disguised," but "the bullets are still flying out."

### The U.S. Government Acquired Shares in at Least 20 Companies for Zero Dollars

The effects of Trump's Intel acquisition were quickly proven. After the transaction was completed, Intel's stock price rose over 50%, and by early 2026, the value of the government's holdings had ballooned to between $35 billion and $63 billion. Trump turned a subsidy that was already going to be spent into hundreds of billions in unrealized gains.

After completing the "bold hypothesis" and "careful verification" and getting validation, the next conclusion for the businessman is to reuse it.

After Intel, Trump's order speed exceeded everyone's expectations:

The Department of Defense acquired 15% of MP Materials, the only U.S. company with complete rare earth mining and processing capabilities, making the Department of Defense its largest shareholder. A startup company, American Lithium, developing lithium mines in Nevada, which had no revenue at the time, also gave up 10%, tying it to a $2.26 billion federal loan restructuring. A Canadian-listed mining company, Trilogy Metals, developing copper and zinc mines in Alaska, handed over 10% plus 7.5% of warrants, which means the government has the right to purchase more shares at an agreed price in the future, at the cost of a $35.6 million investment. When U.S. Steel was acquired by Japan's Nippon Steel, it handed over a "golden share" to the White House, which is not an economic share but a political power: the president can veto factory closures, headquarters relocations, or production transfers overseas. The rocket engine business of the large U.S. defense technology company L3Harris exchanged $1 billion for equity, covering military communications, satellites, and missile systems. Nvidia and AMD, the two largest chip design companies, are special; what they submitted was not shares but a 15% share of their revenue from chip sales to China. By the end of January 2026, another U.S. rare earth company, USA Rare Earth, had also joined the ranks.

According to statistics from the well-known free-market think tank Cato Institute, this administration has already acquired equity, warrants, or golden shares in over 20 companies.


In May 2026, Trump's approach further scaled up. The government announced a one-time investment of $2 billion in nine quantum computing companies in exchange for equity. IBM alone received $1 billion, while GlobalFoundries (one of the world's major chip foundries), D-Wave, Rigetti, Infleqtion, and other quantum startups shared the remaining shares. On the day the news broke, the sector collectively soared: Infleqtion surged over 33%, D-Wave rose 33%, Rigetti increased by 30%, and even IonQ (another publicly listed quantum computing company not on the list) rose by 12%. Raimondo stated in a statement that the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation.

On Prediction Market, traders began to focus on "who will be invested by the government in 2026." Currently, IonQ has a 32% probability, defense AI unicorn Anduril Industries (founded by Oculus VR creator Palmer Luckey, focusing on AI-driven military unmanned systems) has 31%, and Micron (one of the world's largest memory chip manufacturers) has 28%.

### Altman Voluntarily Offered $42.6 Billion in Shares

In addition to the military, chips, and quantum computing sectors, "White House Stock God" Trump naturally will not miss the hottest sector right now: AI.

Interestingly, this time it was OpenAI CEO Altman himself who proactively handed it to Trump.

Altman speaking at the White House/government event

According to U.S. political news site NOTUS and the Financial Times, as early as the beginning of 2025, Altman proposed the idea of the government holding shares in major AI companies to Trump, and thereafter regularly discussed this with senior government officials. In early June 2026, the negotiations were officially exposed. In early July, the figures were published: OpenAI proposed to transfer 5% to the government, valued at approximately $42.6 billion based on the record financing round valuation of $852 billion in March.

Altman's complete proposal is even larger: not just OpenAI, but every top AI company in the U.S. must submit 5% to a government platform agency. The list may include Anthropic, the developer of Claude, which was founded by former core team members of OpenAI and is growing rapidly in the enterprise AI market, as well as Google, Meta (the parent company of Facebook), and Musk's AI company xAI. The revenue model is modeled after the Alaska Permanent Fund, a public fund established by Alaska using oil revenues, which distributes dividends to every resident of the state each year. Altman hopes that the AI version can also distribute dividends to the public.

Why is a company preparing for one of the largest IPOs in history voluntarily giving away $42.6 billion?

Chamath, a well-known Silicon Valley investor and one of the hosts of the All-In podcast, recently revealed this relationship: the economics of AI are completely different from those of the internet. In the internet era, adding one more user had almost no cost; in the AI era, every new user requires real GPUs, memory, power, and infrastructure. None of these can be provided by venture capital; they are all in the hands of Washington.

This means that AI companies' dependence on national-level infrastructure is structural, not temporary. The more you rely on national resources, the more leverage the government has at the negotiating table.

Thus, the relationship between AI companies and the government is no longer as simple as "startups wanting less regulation." They cannot do without government resources, and the government knows this. The past negotiations were: you get subsidies, and you build factories and hire people to pay taxes. Now the negotiations have changed to: we provide you with computing power, electricity, orders, and policy certainty; what does the public get in return?

The industry refers to this 5% as a "regulatory insurance policy." Exchanging equity for a more lenient environment, preemptively mitigating the risks of nationalization or forced breakup, while also embedding Altman and others deeply into the formulation of AI regulatory rules. Intel's precedent is right in front of us: after the government took a stake, Nvidia's $5 billion investment, the joint construction of a chip factory in Texas with Musk, and collaborations with Apple all landed, causing the stock price to soar.

Government shareholders are not a cost; they are the strongest backing.

Of course, not everyone thinks like Altman. There is a conspicuous absentee on the list: Anthropic does not seem as willing. According to insiders, Anthropic has not yet discussed giving up equity with the government.

However, those who do not pay the insurance policy will naturally be pressured by Trump.

Defense Secretary Hegseth announced on X that Anthropic has been labeled as a "supply chain risk," a label previously only used for foreign adversarial suppliers and never applied to American companies. All defense contractors must provide written guarantees not to use Claude. Shortly after, Trump posted on Truth Social, ordering all federal agencies to "immediately stop" using Anthropic's technology. Anthropic did not back down, and on March 9, it simultaneously filed lawsuits in San Francisco and Washington, claiming the blacklist was unconstitutional retaliation.

Anthropic CEO Amodei at a congressional hearing

With Intel's template, the mass replication by Quantum Nine, and OpenAI's proactive submission of the 5% proposal, "who will be the next company to be invested in?" has become a tangible trading theme on Wall Street. Following the government's stock-picking logic, three tiers can be outlined.

The first tier consists of cutting-edge AI model companies. This is a group directly named in Altman's proposal. Besides OpenAI itself, there are Anthropic, xAI, Google, and Meta. Google and Meta are publicly traded companies, and technically, government stakes are easier to operate, but the political perception is more sensitive. The variable for xAI lies with Musk himself. His relationship with Trump soured after the government budget cuts to the DOGE project last year, leading to a temporary fallout, which was just repaired this year. SpaceX completed an $86 billion IPO, with a market value of $2.2 trillion. When Trump was asked in a CNBC interview whether Musk would donate SpaceX stock to Trump's account, he replied, "I think he will." A week later, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced the donation of one share to over 2 million children's accounts, totaling about $320 million.

The second tier consists of the "foundational" companies of AI. Analysts point out that if private capital cannot support the increasingly large funding needs of AI, the government will next consider holding stakes in data center companies that provide computing power and supporting energy infrastructure companies. The names of these companies may not be as sexy as model companies, but they are where government resources, such as land, power grids, and nuclear power approvals, are most densely realized, and also where the logic of "subsidies for equity" flows most smoothly.

The third tier consists of companies that have already transacted or are in the market. After Quantum Nine, the Prediction Market points to IonQ, Anduril, and Micron. Anduril is one of the highest-valued startups in the defense AI sector; Micron just donated $250 million to Trump's account. In this game, donations themselves are a form of bidding, with a clear signal: I am on your side, take care of me.

When U.S. Stocks Become a Belief

Looking back at this baby fund.

Newborns in the U.S. born between 2025 and 2028 will have $1,000 automatically deposited by the Treasury after their parents open an account. This money is mandated to be invested in an index fund tracking the S&P 500, with the default being the State Street's lowest-fee S&P 500 ETF fund SPYM. Optional funds include IVV, VTI, SPTM, ITOT, all of which are U.S. large-cap or total market trading platform funds, with a maximum annual fee of 0.10%. Families can add up to $5,000 per year, tax-deductible, similar to a pension plan, with donations from employers, relatives, and charities counted separately. The funds cannot be withdrawn before the age of 18, and after reaching adulthood, the account automatically converts to the most common long-term retirement savings tool in the U.S., the IRA individual retirement account. The Bank of New York Mellon is responsible for custody, and the accompanying app is designed by one of the largest zero-commission brokerages in the U.S., Robinhood.

The nonpartisan fiscal oversight organization "Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget" estimates that this plan will cost about $17 billion by 2028. The government's own estimate is that the $1,000 will grow to at least $6,000 by the time the child turns 18.

The corporate response is more intriguing than the policy itself. Dell Technologies founders, the Dells, donated $6.25 billion, covering about 25 million children under 10 in low-income zip codes, with each receiving $250. Micron donated $250 million. Intel and Robinhood matched donations for employees' children. The world's largest asset management company, BlackRock, and Bank of America matched employee donations. Then there are the previously mentioned 200 million shares of SpaceX stock from Shotwell. The Treasury promptly announced that it would accept large charitable donations in the form of publicly traded company stocks.

Trump's account does not directly provide blood transfusions to AI companies. Instead, it is doing something slower and deeper: cultivating a generation of people with a vested interest in U.S. stocks.

This money may not change a child's destiny. But from the day this child is born, they become a holder of American assets. Twenty years later, when this child looks at U.S. stocks, they will not see it as a casino for the rich, because their first property is already in it. When the market rises, their account rises; when the market falls, their own money shrinks.

This will greatly cultivate a generation's belief in "American growth."

Although this is not the starting point of a new story. American families' assets have long been welded together with U.S. stocks. The American corporate retirement savings plan 401(k) allows employees to automatically deduct a portion of their salary each month into an investment account, along with pensions, mutual funds, and decades of indexed investment waves, which have already linked a large number of middle-class families' retirement funds, children's education funds, and home equity to the S&P 500. But Trump has implanted this belief in the hearts of every American ahead of time.

Assuming that Washington can indeed secure 5% of 30 OpenAI-level companies in the future, based on OpenAI's valuation of $852 billion, this portfolio would be worth $12.78 trillion at birth. This is already enough to cover the interest on U.S. national debt for a year.

But what if the goal is not to pay interest, but to fill the principal of the debt? Then the story immediately becomes almost science fiction: these 30 companies would need to increase in value by 25 to 31 times overall. In other words, each one would have to grow from today's OpenAI into a giant economy worth over $20 trillion.

Previously, the wild ups and downs of AI belonged more to founders, venture capitalists, and Wall Street. Now, he wants to distribute the benefits of the rise more broadly. The cost is that if a significant pullback occurs in the future, the volatility may also be more widely transmitted to public finances, household accounts, and political sentiments.

In this way, U.S. stocks are no longer just a barometer of the American economy; they are the very fate of the United States.

And this should be Trump's proudest deal of his life.

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