Bernie Sanders says the wealth AI creates “must benefit humanity”, calling for a sovereign wealth fund that would hold ownership stakes in top US AI companies
Artificial intelligence will almost certainly be the most transformational technology in the history of the world.
New York TimesBernie Sanders
Context & Ripple Effects
This call sits within a developing debate over how gains from AI should be distributed as the technology shifts income away from labor and toward capital. Related coverage has moved from the general case for public participation in AI upside to specific mechanisms, including government equity stakes, taxes on AI token use, and capital-income taxes.
The policy discussion has also become more concrete: subsequent coverage describes proposed legislation that would finance a sovereign wealth fund through a stock tax on AI companies above an AI-sales threshold. That turns a broad ownership argument into a question of how public claims on AI-generated value would be established and administered.
First-order effects
Sanders’ proposal puts direct public ownership of leading AI companies into the policy debate, alongside tax-based approaches to redistributing AI-related gains.
AI companies and investors would face increased scrutiny of whether exceptional AI-driven value should carry an obligation to fund public assets, rather than accrue solely to private shareholders.
Second-order effects
A public-equity approach would force comparison with alternatives in the related coverage—taxing AI token use, taxing capital income, or other revenue-sharing mechanisms—each of which allocates costs differently across AI providers and users.
The proposal broadens the policy stakes for jurisdictions exposed to AI-driven changes in their tax base, especially where labor-income receipts could weaken as capital income rises.
Third-order effects
If AI increasingly concentrates returns in company ownership rather than wages, debates over sovereign funds could become part of a wider redesign of tax and ownership systems around automated production.
The durable issue is not whether AI creates value, but whether governments seek that value through taxes, equity stakes, or both—and whether such claims can be imposed without undermining the investment and deployment they target.
The trend: AI policy is expanding from safety and adoption questions toward the political economy of who owns, taxes, and receives the returns from automation.
Bernie is right sometimes, but this is insane OpenAI and Anthropic already are PBCs and an AMERICAN sovereign wealth fund would just accelerate a permanent underclass outside the US
Can doomer grandpa relax? JFC One day it's like “AI IS GONNA KILL US ALL right yud???” Second day: “Ugh stop the fucking Datacenters” Third Day: “Ughh aktchually... it all belongs to the people! let's try communism again, maybe it'll work this time” Bro, I'm getting tired
Let's say half of OpenAI and Anthropic goes to the American people, $1 trillion That works out at $2,800 per American. With a 5% dividend (optimistic) that would be $142 a year Which alas would barely cover the cost of an OpenAI or Anthropic subscription.
If society helps create the value, society should share in the wealth. AI will transform the economy, the workplace, and daily life. If a handful of tech oligarchs own the future, inequality will explode. Thank you @SenSanders 💯
I am so confused by the Bernie Sanders stance on AI. Is AI an existential risk that needs to be banned, or a public good that should be redistributed? He wants to have it both ways, which is the tell that his flirtation with AI safety is mostly for show. This is about capital.
I've said it before and I believe it holds true: a public stake in AI and the companies that are using our collective knowledge, infrastructure and resources to profit is one of the only ways to ensure that these companies don't become the pariahs they are quickly becoming today.
AI is built on humanity's collective knowledge. The wealth it generates must benefit humanity — not just Elon Musk, Sam Altman and other AI oligarchs. That's why I'll be introducing the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act — to give the public a direct ownership stake. [image]
Bernie Sanders has a profoundly oligarch friendly view of AI becoming super intelligent. He believes all the dumbest AI accelerationist views. https://www.nytimes.com/...
SO pumped for this Bernie Sanders proposal - this is exactly what needs to happen. AI models are trained on basically the entirety of human knowledge and creative production - they should be owned collectively for that reason alone https://www.nytimes.com/...
New @nytimes op-ed by @BernieSanders calls for sovereign wealth fund tied to the stock of frontier labs. Whether or not you back this idea, his closing is a reminder that people support what they help build. Absent more meaningful mechanisms for people to share their views on [im…
Sanders proposing a bill through which the government would seize half of the ownership of major AI companies. People should stop treating him like a harmless old man. This is deeply sinister. [image]
I like this. Imo the affirmative argument Democrats should be making is democratic accountability over concentrated private power. We should focus on what is needed to govern the terms of the buildout (including electricity!), not just blocking it. https://www.nytimes.com/...
People often ask how we'll redistribute gains from AI to make things fair. The best way to fund direct redistribution and have it scale far past “basic” is this: a sovereign wealth fund that holds equity in the companies themselves and pays people when it grows. — www.nytimes.…
Sure seems like the federal government could heavily tax and regulate the AI companies without taking functional control of the most influential information companies on the planet
I'm not advocating for Bernie's bill. But it's worth pointing out that the same people who freak out over proposals like this from the left don't blink an eye when the Trump Regime demands a stake in companies. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/o...
He mentions OAI, Anthropic, xAI, but of course Google and Meta are massive AI players as well... are we seizing half of Google? NVidia? And what about the next companies? OpenAI and Anthropic were worth tiny fractions of their current value 5 years ago. Surely there are small [im…
It's worth observing that the public already owns about 26% of OpenAI stock, embodied in the OpenAI Foundation. The nonprofit Foundation also controls the for-profit part. OpenAI is the only AI company that is set up with public ownership at all.
I'll be introducing the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a bill giving the public a direct stake to determine AI's future. When a public resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. https://x.com/...