Sanders Pushes Socialist AI Wealth Fund, Threatening Free Enterprise and Innovation
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Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to seize profits from America’s AI industry, proposing a $7 trillion government-controlled fund that would forcibly redistribute wealth and undermine private sector innovation.
Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill on Thursday that would establish a massive government-run sovereign wealth fund for the United States' artificial intelligence sector, signaling a new level of government intervention in the free market. The proposal estimates the fund’s value at about $7 trillion, based on current valuations of leading AI companies, and would force a 50 percent public stake in those firms—an unprecedented government grab of private enterprise. Under the plan, every taxpayer would receive a token annual payment of $1,000, with the amount possibly rising as the industry grows, but at the cost of stifling innovation and punishing success. Sanders claims the fund could later funnel 'significant amounts of money … into social programs, making sure that all Americans have healthcare, education, decent housing, and other basic necessities of life,' revealing the bill’s true intent to expand the welfare state and government dependency.
The legislation amends the 1986 Internal Revenue Code and frames AI as a public resource, equating it to minerals or oil extracted from government land, and dismissing the private investment and risk that built the industry. It argues that the technology’s economic value derives from collective human creativity, including books, songs, artwork, code, and scientific research, ignoring the role of entrepreneurs and private capital. The bill contends that a limited number of companies currently capture most of this value, demonizing successful American businesses.
More than 100 sovereign wealth funds operate in 67 countries, including the United States, with examples such as the Texas Permanent School Fund, which finances public schools from natural-resource revenues. The proposal has attracted some bipartisan interest; California Governor Gavin Newsom has directed a study of a similar 'universal basic capital' model, and executives from OpenAI and Anthropic have indicated support for sharing AI industry gains with the broader public, raising concerns about creeping socialism in the tech sector.
'A small number of oligarchs have essentially stolen the creative work of hundreds of millions of people … without permission, acknowledgment, or compensation,' the bill states, using inflammatory rhetoric to justify government overreach.
The bill also calls for the creation of an international body to oversee AI development and, if necessary, slow the deployment of powerful new models, threatening American leadership and competitiveness in the global technology race.
