Governments are increasingly considering equity stakes in AI companies for reasons tied to sovereignty and national security, rather than financial bailouts. The Indian government is considering acquiring a 1–2% stake in AI startup Sarvam AI, valued at around $1.5 billion. Separately, OpenAI has discussed giving the US government a 5% stake as the $852 billion AI giant seeks political support, and also proposed a framework for a government-backed vehicle to acquire minority stakes in other US AI companies including Anthropic, Google, and Meta. Anwesha Sen of The Takshashila Institution cites sovereignty and ensuring access to frontier AI models as key factors. TV Mohandas Pai notes the US views leading AI companies as strategic assets. This follows the Trump administration acquiring a 9.9% stake in Intel in August last year, purchasing 433 million shares for $8.9 billion. Adarsh Ranjan of Carnegie India observes that direct equity ownership is a new investment vehicle being explored, with the US International Development Finance Corporation having approved $2.5 billion in strategic investments.