Trump and Sanders Pursue Public Ownership of AI Companies

President Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders are pursuing different but overlapping strategies to ensure the public shares in the economic gains of artificial intelligence. Sanders proposed the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI to mitigate job losses and societal upheaval. Trump expressed support for a public ownership stake and announced plans to meet with 12 to 15 top AI executives to discuss the industry giving back to the public. This follows Trump's recent executive order requiring the government to vet national security risks of advanced AI systems before release.

Industry leaders are increasingly signaling a shift toward state intervention. Palantir CEO Alex Karp predicted that full nationalization of the largest AI companies is inevitable within two years, suggesting Sanders' 50% proposal will soon seem moderate. Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay advocating for government economic support and universal basic income funded by levies on AI companies. To address these shifts, Anthropic invested $200 million into an Economic Futures Research Fund and established a $150 million national fellowship program.

Not all officials agree with this trend. Former White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks warned Republicans that adopting nationalization frameworks could allow future Democratic administrations to weaponize those same regulations against them.