Direct Stake In AI: The Question Is Not New But Has Never Had Legislative Weight Behind It: If AI Was Built On The Accumulated Knowledge Of The American Public, Does The American Public Deserve A Share Of The Trillions It Will Generate?
According to the Financial Times, Interesting Engineering and CNBC, two distinct proposals to give the American public a stake in artificial intelligence have emerged in the same week.
Senator Bernie Sanders plans to introduce the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would impose a one-time transfer of 50% of equity from the largest AI companies; including OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI into a federally managed sovereign fund.
Rather than a profits tax, this would be a mandatory equity transfer, giving the public voting rights, board representation, and eventually direct dividend payments.
“The foundation of AI is our collective human intelligence,” Sanders wrote in the New York Times. “Our books, songs, artwork, journalism, computer code, scientific research, videos, conversations, and ideas spanning generations.” Senator Elizabeth Warren has tabled a separate AI tax proposal.
Simultaneously, the Trump administration has been discussing a related but distinct concept. OpenAI’s April 2026 policy paper proposed a Public Wealth Fund seeded with donated shares to distribute AI gains broadly.
President Trump, speaking on Air Force One, confirmed the idea: “There are concepts where pieces could be given to the American public, where the American public essentially becomes a partner.” The administration has already taken equity stakes in approximately 20 companies during Trump’s second term, including Intel and IBM.
What differentiates the two proposals is redistribution. Trump has completed the government ownership step without creating a mechanism to share gains with citizens. Sanders wants both.
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