Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that would take roughly $7 trillion from America’s largest AI companies and hand the public a 50% ownership stake. The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, unveiled June 18, goes further than any previous proposal in giving citizens voting power over corporate decisions, not just a share of profits (Ars Technica, June 18).
### How the Equity Seizure Works
The mechanism is not a cash tax. The bill imposes a one-time 50% tax on the stock of AI companies generating more than $200 million in annual AI-related revenue. That stock is transferred into a sovereign wealth fund managed by an Independent Commission for Democratic AI, with seven members nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, drawn from a bipartisan list (Sanders Senate press release, June 18).
“If passed, the law would create a sovereign wealth fund financed through a one-time 50 percent tax on the stock of the largest AI companies,” Sanders shared with AP News, as reported by Ars Technica. Any new AI firm reaching the $200 million revenue threshold would also be subject to the tax, meaning the fund’s base grows as the industry grows.
The companies absorb the risk. If the stock value declines, the federal government does not make up the difference; the firms bear the loss.
### What Americans Would Get
Sanders estimates the fund could be worth $7 trillion at current valuations. A 5% annual dividend would mean each American receives more than $1,000 per year in direct payments, with additional proceeds funding healthcare, education, and housing (Sanders Senate press release, June 18).
“The benefits cannot simply go to the handful of wealthy corporations,” Sanders said. “They will be shared by the American people.”
To put the scale in context: the projected $7 trillion fund would be nearly seven times larger than Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, currently the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund (Crypto Briefing, June 18).
### Governance, Not Just Payouts
The bill does two things beyond wealth transfer. It requires large companies operating both AI and non-AI businesses to split them apart, ensuring the public’s ownership stake is in the AI entity, not a conglomerate. And the Independent Commission would use its voting shares to block corporate decisions that could harm the public (via Ars Technica, June 18).
“The public has got to have a significant seat at the table to make sure that terrible things do not happen to ordinary people, and that in fact, AI benefits ordinary people, not hurts them,” Sanders told AP News.
### The Industry Reaction
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have both expressed support for some public benefit from AI, but their proposals are far more modest. After meeting with Sanders, Altman remained “far apart” from the senator on how much stake the American public should hold in OpenAI, according to sources in the room (via AP News and Ars Technica, June 18).
Sanders cast the industry’s voluntary proposals, typically 5% profit-sharing, as inadequate.
“I think people like Sam Altman and Trump who may be sympathetic are saying: ‘OK, look, we’re making zillions of dollars, so we’re going to be nice guys and maybe we’ll buy off the public. We will give 5 percent of our profits back into the government,'” Sanders said. “That’s not what we’re talking about.”
Donald Trump’s former AI czar, David Sacks, called the legislation “straight up confiscation of property” on the All In podcast, saying it would set “a terrible precedent” (via The Washington Post and Ars Technica, June 18). Sacks is more supportive of voluntary public ownership ideas similar to Trump’s approach.
### A Starting Point, Not a Finish Line
With a Republican-controlled Congress that remains largely pro-AI industry, the bill is unlikely to pass in its current form. Sanders does not expect it to resolve every question about AI governance. He told AP News he views the legislation as a starting point for a national conversation about how Americans should benefit from AI, a conversation he intends to campaign on.
“We think this is the best that we could do at the moment, and it’s certainly a major, major, major step forward from giving unilateral and total power to a handful of multi-billionaires,” Sanders said.
The bill arrives as anti-AI sentiment rises nationwide, with concerns about job displacement, privacy, and concentration of power at record levels. Whether or not it becomes law, it has already forced a question the industry has been eager to avoid: who, exactly, does AI belong to?
Sources: Ars Technica (June 19); Senator Bernie Sanders Press Release (June 18); Crypto Briefing (June 18)