Bernie Sanders proposes 50% government stake in AI firms via stock tax, backed by sovereign wealth fund

Sen. Bernie Sanders outlined a proposal to give the federal government a 50% ownership stake in major artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. The stake would be acquired through a one-time tax on those companies paid in stock rather than cash, and held in a newly created sovereign wealth fund.

Sanders argued in a New York Times op-ed that AI is built not from scratch but from the "collective intelligence" of the public — its accumulated knowledge, creativity, and labor. He described AI as "the most transformational technology in the history of the world" and said its financial benefits should flow broadly rather than to a narrow group of technology executives.

Under the proposal, the federal government would receive voting shares and equal representation on the boards of the affected companies, giving it the power to "block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them." Sanders framed this as a counterbalance to AI's direction being set by "a handful of Big Tech oligarchs."