Sanders proposes 50% public ownership of major AI firms

Senator Bernie Sanders announced plans to introduce legislation that would grant the American public a 50 percent ownership stake in the nation’s leading artificial intelligence companies. The proposal, called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, would mandate a one-time transfer of equity from firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI to a federally managed sovereign wealth fund.

Under the plan, the government would hold voting shares and secure board representation at each company, providing a mechanism to block decisions deemed harmful to the public. Revenue generated by the fund would be distributed to Americans as direct cash payments, with Sanders stating that proceeds could eventually support broader public goods like healthcare, education, and housing.

The senator argues that because AI systems are trained on humanity's collective knowledge, creativity, and labor—often without compensation—the resulting wealth should be broadly shared. He has cited existing models like Norway's Government Pension Fund Global and Alaska's Permanent Fund Dividend, which distribute resource-based wealth to citizens, as precedents for the concept.

Sanders noted that versions of this idea...