Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he will soon introduce the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a bill that would impose a one-time 50% tax on the largest AI companies, paid in stock rather than cash. The proposal would give the public a direct ownership stake in those firms and grant the federal government voting shares and equal representation on each company’s board.
Sanders laid out the plan in a New York Times guest essay published Sunday. He named OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI as targets and framed AI-generated wealth as a public resource. “Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity,” Sanders said.
The federal government would use its voting shares and board seats “to block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them,” according to the essay. Sanders said the fund’s returns would flow back to the public through direct payments and spending on healthcare, education, and housing.
Sanders acknowledged that government ownership in companies where AI is only part of the business is “complicated.” He did not specify how the stock tax would apply to private companies like OpenAI or Anthropic, which do not have publicly traded shares.
The AI wealth fund idea has been proposed before
Sanders cited proposals from the AI industry itself to support the concept. OpenAI published a policy paper in April calling for a public wealth fund that would give Americans an automatic stake in AI companies, with returns distributed to citizens. Anthropic has also floated the idea of national sovereign wealth funds with stakes in AI. Sanders also pointed to Norway’s oil-funded sovereign wealth fund and Alaska’s Permanent Fund as models.
Sanders’s plan differs in scale and compulsion. OpenAI’s proposal involved taxes on AI profits and voluntary participation. Sanders is proposing a mandatory transfer of half of each company’s outstanding equity to federal control, paired with governance rights that go well beyond a passive investment.
The Intel contrast
The federal government already holds equity in one major tech company. In August 2025, the U.S. took a 10% stake in Intel through an $8.9 billion investment. Intel said the government’s position was passive, with no board seat or governance rights. Sanders’s proposal would be five times larger by equity share and would include active governance power, a gap that separates industrial policy from effective co-control of private firms.