Senator Elizabeth Warren wants AI companies to start paying what she considers their fair share. In a Time op-ed published May 27, the Massachusetts Democrat laid out a proposal for new taxes on AI companies and large data centers, including an excise tax on their energy consumption scaled to the size of their operations.
The revenue, Warren argues, should fund worker protections, universal health care, education, and unemployment insurance.
The proposal: what Warren actually wants
The centerpiece is what Warren calls a “reasonable” excise tax on energy consumption by data centers. The tax would be calibrated to the scale of operations, meaning the trillion-dollar players would shoulder the heaviest burden.
Warren specifically named Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman as billionaires who have profited enormously from the AI boom.
