U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) proposed a bill to give the American public a 50% ownership stake in major artificial intelligence companies [1].
The proposal seeks to shift the financial benefits of AI from private shareholders to the general public. By creating a sovereign wealth fund, the legislation aims to prevent a small group of oligarchs from controlling the trillions of dollars generated by AI technologies [1, 4].
The legislation, titled the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of AI giants [2]. This mechanism is designed to facilitate the transfer of equity to the public, targeting companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI [3, 5].
Sanders said the goal is to ensure that the wealth created by AI is used for the public good [1, 4]. The senator said that the rapid development of these technologies should benefit the entire population rather than enriching a few corporate executives.
Under the proposed framework, the sovereign wealth fund would manage the public's shares in these firms. The revenue generated from these stakes would then be directed toward public services, and social investments [4].
This move represents a significant departure from current U.S. corporate governance, where AI development is driven primarily by private venture capital and proprietary models. The bill proposes a structural change to how the U.S. government interacts with the tech sector — moving from a regulatory role to a partial ownership role.
“The legislation would impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of AI giants.”
This proposal signals a growing legislative interest in treating artificial intelligence as a public utility or a shared national resource rather than a purely private commercial product. If implemented, such a model would fundamentally alter the incentive structures of Silicon Valley by decoupling total profit maximization from private ownership, potentially slowing private investment while increasing the state's influence over AI safety and deployment.
