June 4 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials held preliminary discussions with major AI companies about the potential for the government to buy some shares in their firms, digital news outlet NOTUS reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

While the planning is ongoing and details are in flux, discussions have centered on having the firms voluntarily cede the shares to the government, the report said.

The returns on the investment could then be directed to public purposes, such as distributing a dividend payment to all American households, the report said.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

The report comes as OpenAI and Anthropic prepare for blockbuster initial public offerings. OpenAI is preparing to confidentially file for an IPO, Reuters previously reported, while Anthropic, which makes Claude, confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO on Monday.

-- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has discussed the idea with government officials since President Donald Trump began his second term, the report said.

-- Altman first pitched the concept directly to Trump in a conversation in 2025, and has discussed it again with senior administration officials in recent weeks as a way to more broadly distribute the economic benefits of AI to the public, NOTUS said.

-- In 2025, Altman said OpenAI has spoken with the U.S. government about the possibility of federal loan guarantees to spur construction of chip factories in the U.S., but has not sought U.S. government guarantees for building its data centers.

-- Anthropic is not having conversations with the administration about providing equity to the government, the report said.

-- OpenAI, Anthropic and the White House did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the NOTUS report.

-- Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday asking leading AI developers to voluntarily submit their most capable models for government cybersecurity tests before releasing them to the public.

-- The administration said in May it would take $2 billion in equity stakes across nine quantum-computing firms.

(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru and Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)