Norway's government owns a piece of thousands of companies and caps itself at a 10% stake in any one. Bernie Sanders wants the U.S. to take five times that in the most valuable startups on earth, by building a federal fund out of half the stock of America's biggest AI firms.
The mechanics are blunt. Sanders plans to introduce a bill, the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, that hits leading AI companies with a one-time 50% tax paid in their own shares.
That list includes OpenAI, Anthropic, and Elon Musk's xAI, among others. In exchange, the government would get voting shares and an equal seat on each company's board.
His argument is that these models were trained on the work of millions of people without pay, so the wealth they create should flow back to the public. He frames the founders behind them as a handful of tech oligarchs.
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A 50% government stake is a different animal than the funds Sanders points to, since Norway's oil fund and Alaska's both hold small slices and stay out of the boardroom.
Taking control-level ownership of private companies, then handing the proceeds out as direct payments to Americans, would be new ground. Sanders says the money would also fund healthcare, education, and housing.
He admits the details are thin, and says the mechanics and the spending plan will come with the bill in the weeks ahead. For investors, the same AI power demand driving these valuations is exactly what makes a 50% grab so consequential.
A one-time tax paid in stock, not cash, is the piece that makes this unusual. It would hand Washington a permanent seat at the table of the companies building AI.
The bill text will show whether the idea can survive contact with reality.
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