Senate Bill Would Require AI Firms to Yield Half Ownership to Public

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has introduced a bill that would impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of the biggest artificial intelligence (AI) companies and deposit that stock into a new sovereign wealth fund, giving the public 50% ownership of the companies.

At current valuations, the sovereign wealth fund created by the “American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act” would be worth an estimated $7 trillion, Sanders said in a Thursday (June 18) press release.

The one-time tax would apply to companies that record $200 million in annual AI sales. AI companies are defined as those involved in AI data centers, AI computing infrastructure, AI services and advanced robotics, according to a summary of the bill released by Sanders.

Companies that operate both AI and non-AI businesses would be required to separate those businesses so that the public receives a stake only in the AI one. As new AI companies reach the sales threshold, the one-time tax would apply to them too, per the summary.

The sovereign wealth fund created by the bill would be run by a commission made up of seven bipartisan commissioners nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, based on candidates provided by Congress. The fund would pay out an annual dividend of 5% of its value to be used for direct payments to the American people and other measures, according to the summary.

“The foundation of AI is based on the collective knowledge of humanity and the creative work of tens of millions of people,” Sanders said in the release. “The American people must have the ability to slow it down and make sure that AI benefits humanity, not just the richest people on the planet. That’s precisely what this legislation does.”

Y Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan shared a Sanders announcement of the bill in a post on X and said: “This is a war on building startups in America.” In another post, Tan said: “Asset seizure is evil.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last February that called for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund and ordered government officials to develop a plan that includes funding mechanisms. The White House said in a fact sheet that the United States holds assets that can be invested through a sovereign wealth fund.

It was reported at the time that 20 U.S. states have sovereign wealth funds, as do China, Norway and Saudi Arabia.