Sanders proposes public 50% stake in big AI companies

WASHINGTON (MNTV) — Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed giving the American public a 50 percent ownership stake in major artificial intelligence companies, arguing the enormous wealth AI is generating should be shared rather than concentrated among a handful of technology billionaires.

His AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would create that stake through a one-time tax on the stock of large AI firms. Sanders’ case rests on a claim about where the value comes from: AI is built on the collective knowledge, creativity, and data of generations, so the returns should flow to the public that produced the raw material. 

“The time has come to reclaim what was stolen from us,” he said.

The proposal lands as AI companies pull in massive investment and prepare to expand further.

Sanders has previously pressed for stronger oversight of the sector — on labor impacts, corporate power, and the risks of rapid development — and frames public ownership as the logical extension: technology drawing on public knowledge should produce public benefit.

The plan faces steep political, legal, and economic obstacles, and industry will argue that private investment, not public stakes, is what drives innovation. 

But it sharpens a real question the AI boom has forced into the open — who should capture the gains from a technology built on everyone’s contributions, and whether those gains widen inequality or get shared.