Strange bedfellows

What’s the one thing Sam Altman, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump can agree on?

Don’t worry, it’s not the setup for some bad joke. All three believe regular Americans deserve a slice of AI companies.

We’ve written for months about how the Trump administration has ushered in a counterintuitive wave of government stakes in companies, from rare earths to quantum to chipmakers like Intel (see our story above). The move has been controversial: Critics argue that the federal government getting into bed with corporations is playing with fire, while proponents point to the fact that it has generated billions of dollars in profits for the government.

But unlike pretty much every single issue you can think of, there’s support across the political spectrum for the government buying shares of AI titans. President Trump himself has suggested the idea, saying earlier this month to reporters, “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public.”

Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seems to be on board: In April, the company proposed a public wealth fund that would give Americans exposure to the AI market. The proposal was part of OpenAI’s talks with the Trump administration about a government stake in the private company.

AI stock for you, AI stock for you, AI stock for everyone

Today, one of DC’s most outspoken critics of corporate power is hopping on the bandwagon, too. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders outlined the most aggressive proposal yet for giving Americans a slice of the AI pie. The details of Sanders’s proposition, which were first reported by the Associated Press today, go much further than just the government taking a minority equity stake:

• The legislation proposed that a sovereign wealth fund would be financed by a one-time 50% tax on AI companies that reach $200 million in annual AI sales, paid in stock to the fund.
• The fund, which Sanders estimates would have roughly $7 trillion in stock, would be used to finance healthcare, housing, and education.
• An independent commission nominated by the president would manage the fund and use voting shares to “block decisions that hurt the American people.”

“The public has got to have a significant seat at the table to make sure that terrible things do not happen to ordinary people, and that in fact, AI benefits ordinary people, not hurts them,” Sanders told the AP yesterday.

Altman met with Sanders earlier this month to discuss his ideas, but Sanders’s 50% government ownership is a far more radical proposal than the measly minority stake Altman envisions giving the government. After all, even if tech titans are willing to give the rest of us plebeians a slice of the pie, it’s hard to imagine them handing over control to a government commission.

Zoom out: These proposals arrive while backlash to AI is becoming an increasingly key point on the campaign trail across the country. Whatever form it takes, the idea that Americans should directly own the AI companies that many think may one day put them out of a job—might be one of the only issues that unites Silicon Valley titans, MAGA, and democratic socialists.

Hey, if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.—LB