Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders announced today that he will introduce legislation to give the American public a direct ownership stake in the country's largest artificial intelligence companies.Writing in the New York Times, Sanders laid out the case for the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act — a bill that would create a federally managed fund created not with cash, but with stock. Specifically, Sanders proposes a one-time transfer of 50 percent of equity from companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI to the government. The idea: since AI is built on the accumulated knowledge, creativity, conversations, and labor of the American people — typically without permission or payment — the American people deserve a cut of the profits.
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Here's what Sanders is proposing.
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What the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would accomplishThe fund would acquire half the stock of the largest AI companies in the country through a mandated equity transfer — Sanders is explicit that this is not a profits tax. The government would then hold voting shares and receive equal board representation at each company, giving it formal power to block decisions deemed harmful to the public.Revenue generated by the fund would flow directly to Americans as cash payments, with Sanders indicating that, as the fund grows, proceeds would eventually support broader public goods, including healthcare, education, and housing. He points to Norway's sovereign wealth fund and Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend as working models of the concept.Sanders' core argument is that AI models were built on the writing, art, journalism, code, and research produced by millions of people without their consent or compensation. Sanders argues that because the technology is derived from collective human output, the wealth it generates should be shared collectively. As Sanders prepares his legislation, AI industry leaders are prepping for a massive payday when Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX (which recently merged with xAI) go public this year.
