ai risk today logo svg bl font
Menu
SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
ai risk today logo svg bl font
Menu

AI sovereign wealth fund

Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders over a glowing satellite map of Michigan, for El-Sayed's AI platform addressing frontier AI companies.

Michigan Senate Candidate Proposes Public Control Of Frontier AI Firms

, , , , , , , , ,

Abdul El-Sayed’s AI platform backs Bernie Sanders’s sovereign wealth fund bill and also proposes that the boards at major AI companies be composed of a majority of publicly appointed or elected members.

Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is proposing to put frontier AI companies under public ownership and public control, going further than Sen. Bernie Sanders’s recent bill to give Americans a direct financial stake in major AI firms.

El-Sayed’s campaign released the proposal Monday as part of “AI Under Democracy,” a 22-point platform that would require federal action if adopted.

The proposal incorporates Senator Sanders’s American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. The bill would impose a one-time 50% stock tax on AI companies generating more than $200 million in annual AI revenue. The shares would be placed in a federally managed sovereign wealth fund, giving the public an ownership stake in large AI companies.

El-Sayed’s platform says he supports the Sanders bill, but would “take it one step further” by adding public control. His proposal calls for a majority of board seats at frontier AI companies to be publicly appointed or democratically elected, rather than chosen by shareholders.

The platform also calls for major AI labs to operate as public benefit corporations, with legal obligations to balance profit against public interest. It would require frontier AI companies to separate from major technology platforms. Under the proposal, companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta could not keep controlling stakes in frontier AI companies. They would have to sell or give up that control over time.

El-Sayed’s campaign framed the proposal as a response to the concentration of AI development inside a small number of companies. The campaign said he is the first U.S. Senate candidate to propose public control of AI companies.

“AI isn’t just any another tool. Even today, it holds the capacity to destroy our jobs, deny our healthcare, and surveil us. That power can’t sit solely within the control of a few billionaires,” El-Sayed said in the announcement.

The rest of the proposal includes several AI risk and governance measures, including stronger oversight of frontier models, tighter controls on access to advanced computing resources, and limits on high-risk AI uses in areas such as health care, employment, surveillance, and military force.

Bernie Sanders speaking at a public event for coverage of his AI sovereign wealth fund proposal.

Sanders unveils $7 trillion fund tied to equity stakes in AI firms

, , , , , , , , ,

The proposal would give the public a direct ownership stake in major AI companies through a one-time 50% stock tax.

 

Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that would create a sovereign wealth fund by giving the public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in the United States.

The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would impose a one-time 50% tax on the stock of AI companies generating more than $200 million in annual AI revenue. Rather than being paid in cash, the tax would be paid in shares and deposited into a new federally managed sovereign wealth fund.

Sanders said the fund could ultimately be worth roughly $7 trillion based on current valuations of leading AI companies. The legislation would establish a seven-member Independent Commission for Democratic AI, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, to manage the fund and exercise voting rights associated with the shares.

According to Sanders, the commission would use those voting rights to block corporate decisions that harm the public and support policies that benefit workers and consumers. The bill would also require companies that operate both AI and non-AI businesses to separate those operations so the public stake would apply specifically to the AI business.

Sanders argued that AI companies have benefited from decades of publicly funded research, publicly funded universities, and publicly available information used to train AI models. He said those public contributions justify giving Americans a direct ownership stake in the economic gains generated by the technology.

“Since AI is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity,” Sanders said in announcing the legislation.

The proposal would require the fund to distribute a portion of its returns to Americans. Sanders said the fund could eventually generate annual payments of more than $1,000 per American while also supporting investments in healthcare, education and housing. However, that estimate depends on the future value and performance of the fund’s holdings.

The legislation enters a policy debate that recently drew interest from across the political spectrum. Earlier this month, President Trump discussed the idea of giving Americans an ownership stake in major AI companies through a government-backed investment fund. Sanders’ proposal pursues a similar goal through a different mechanism. Instead of investing in AI companies, his bill would require the largest AI firms to transfer a 50% ownership stake into a public fund.

The bill was introduced in the Senate. As of publication, committee referral information was not immediately available.