Senator Bernie Sanders wants to take roughly $7 trillion from the AI industry and hand it to the American public. That’s not a typo, and it’s not a metaphor.
The Vermont senator introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in June 2026, proposing a one-time 50% tax on the stock of AI companies generating more than $200 million in annual AI-related revenue. The proceeds would flow into a sovereign wealth fund managed by an independent commission, with eligible Americans receiving voting shares and potential annual distributions of around $1,000 per person at a 5% distribution rate.
To put the scale in perspective: the projected $7 trillion fund would be nearly seven times larger than Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, currently the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund.
How the plan would actually work
The legislation targets any AI firm crossing the $200 million annual AI sales threshold. That captures the obvious names: OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and the major cloud providers with significant AI revenue streams. It also sweeps in any future company that reaches that benchmark, meaning the tax base would grow as the industry grows.
