Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation this week to create an American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund, giving the public a 50 percent ownership stake in the largest US artificial intelligence companies. The bill arrives as major AI firms OpenAI and Anthropic prepare for initial public offerings and as similar ideas circulate among industry leaders and White House advisors.
The mechanics of public ownership
Sanders' proposal draws on models already in use globally. Norway operates a sovereign wealth fund worth roughly $2 trillion, built from state oil revenues. The Vermont senator's bill would apply a comparable structure to AI, where the public would hold direct equity in the country's biggest AI corporations.
The concept has support from unexpected quarters. OpenAI has proposed a "Public Wealth Fund" that would give citizens a stake in "AI-driven economic growth." Anthropic has separately suggested a sovereign wealth fund to "shape the sector's behavior." Media reports also indicate that advisors to President Trump are weighing the possibility of government equity stakes in major AI firms.
Beyond the balance sheet
Sanders framed the bill as a mechanism for control, not just profit sharing. "The foundation of AI is based on the collective knowledge of humanity and the creative work of tens of millions of people," Sanders said. "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."
The legislation treats the technology's underlying data - the writing, art, code, and research generated by the public over decades - as a shared resource. A sovereign wealth fund would convert that collective input into a formal ownership mechanism, giving citizens both financial returns and a seat at the table for governance decisions about how AI systems are deployed.
For government professionals tracking AI policy, understanding these ownership structures is becoming a core competency. The AI Learning Path for Policy Makers covers the frameworks emerging around public AI governance and equity models. Similarly, AI for Government resources address how public sector leaders can evaluate proposals like sovereign wealth funds against existing regulatory and fiscal tools.
Why this matters for government professionals
This bill signals a shift from regulating AI through rules alone to regulating through ownership. If enacted, government agencies would need to manage a massive new asset class - equity in companies whose technologies they also procure and oversee. That dual role creates new compliance, ethics, and portfolio management responsibilities that don't exist in current agency structures. The proposal also forces a conversation about what the public is owed when private companies build trillion-dollar businesses on publicly generated data.
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