Altman: OpenAI Made 'Many Changes' to GPT-5.6 After Talks With Trump Administration Officials, Pushes Back on 5% Stake Reports

CNBC·medium signal

In a July 9 CNBC interview timed to the GPT-5.6 rollout, Altman said OpenAI had a 'collaborative back and forth' with Commerce Secretary Lutnick and Treasury Secretary Bessent and made 'many changes' to its models before the wide release — after the government had briefly limited the June 26 preview. He also called reports that OpenAI offered the US a 5% equity stake full of 'inaccuracies.' The signal for builders: frontier release timing and model behavior are now entangled with federal review, a new source of supply-side uncertainty.