TL;DRA Verasight survey of 1,690 US adults found 69% support forcing AI companies to transfer 50% of their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund, the policy at the heart of Bernie Sanders’s American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. The shift tracks a labour market where tech made up nearly a third of US layoffs in H1 2026 while the same firms raised AI capex. The article presents the counterarguments too: property-rights objections, chilled investment, disputed displacement forecasts, and survey-wording effects.
An idea that sounded radical a year ago is now a majority position. Nearly seven in ten Americans support forcing AI companies to transfer half their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund, CNBC reports.
The figure comes from a Verasight survey of 1,690 US adults, conducted in June. It found 69% backing for the policy.
The public sees such funds as a way to route the gains of the AI industry back to society, Verasight chief executive Benjamin Leff said. That framing is doing a lot of work.
Where the idea came from
