On Monday, a New York Times op-ed by Senator Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) outlined plans to push the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in the coming weeks. The proposal would grant Americans a direct equity stake in the nation’s leading AI firms by establishing a sovereign wealth fund funded by a one-off tax equal to 50% of the stock of those companies.
Details have not been released, but Sanders argues that the measure would allow the public to take part in shaping the future of AI, rather than having its direction dictated by a small circle of powerful tech magnates. The plan would empower the federal government to employ its voting rights and ensure equal representation on each board, enabling it to block moves and policies deemed harmful.
Sanders’ plan draws on analogous appeals from academics and from the executives leading OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI—three of the largest AI companies in the United States—who have pressed for a formal mechanism that would provide Americans with direct financial benefits from the industry. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last February directing the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, and the president’s economic adviser to draft a plan for a sovereign wealth fund and present it to the president within 90 days.
At this stage, the specifics of such a fund remain undisclosed. The Treasury Department and the Commerce Department did not respond to Reason’s request for comment.
To bolster his case, Sanders points to Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global and Alaska’s Permanent Fund Corporation as models worth emulating, though both are funded by revenue from oil and gas exploration, a source of funding Sanders strongly opposes.
The central premise—that the wealth fund should deliver direct payments to the American people—rests on the Alaska example. In 1976, Alaska passed a constitutional amendment and subsequent laws guaranteeing a payout from the state’s wealth fund to residents who have lived there for at least 12 months. Today, payouts from the roughly $86 billion fund fluctuate with the state’s fiscal position as government withdrawals swell. Yet, when compared with a typical low-cost index fund, Alaska’s wealth fund performs well, though it carries substantially higher management fees, according to Bankrate data.
Norway’s fund, by contrast, restricts annual withdrawals to about 3% of the fund, and the country has wrestled with remaining politically neutral in its investments as debates over which initiatives and companies deserve funding and ethical considerations continue to unfold.
While Sanders portrays tech oligarchs as modern-day robber barons, his proposal mirrors tools long employed by real oligarchs and autocrats around the world to sustain illiberal regimes, channel funds illegally, and wield unchecked power over their populations.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin is draining the country’s National Wealth Fund to support his war in Ukraine, often contrary to the cautions of financial watchdogs. Iran uses its National Development Fund to finance groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, along with its security apparatus, while Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund is regularly used to facilitate human rights abuses, according to a 2024 report from Human Rights Watch. While it is unlikely that an American wealth fund would be misused in such a manner, recent fraud cases demonstrate that a large, unconstrained pool of hundreds of billions of dollars could tempt officials.
Sanders also appears to misread the picture of AI’s benefits, which extend to a broad segment of the population, not only the ultra-wealthy. A Fidelity Investments retirement study found that through the first quarter of 2026, the average 401(k) account balance had risen by about 11% compared with the prior year.
Beyond monetary gains, AI is delivering tangible improvements. Tools that detect breast cancer earlier and with greater accuracy are increasingly available, while bilingual conversational agents have shown potential to enhance students’ language skills and vocabulary at early ages. If every AI advancement required government approval as Sanders proposes, it is unlikely that breakthroughs of this scale and pace—the needs of society—would be realized.
Ultimately, the bill’s fate appears unlikely to advance, but Sanders’ readiness to put the idea on the table signals a growing willingness among lawmakers from across the political spectrum to regulate and temper a technology that, in his estimation, could become “the most transformational technology in the history of the world.”
