I watched a senator lay a single sheet of paper on the lectern and watched the room rearrange itself around that page. The claim was small and seismic: the machines that now drive markets were built on the creative labor of all of us. You could feel the question hang there—if the machines profit, who pays the people?
I’ll unpack the bill, the numbers, and why this might matter to your paycheck and to the shape of tech power.
Senator Sanders placed a bill on the Senate table on Thursday that re-frames ownership of AI.
He introduced legislation to amend the 1986 Internal Revenue Code that would create a sovereign wealth fund for the U.S. AI industry valued at roughly $7 trillion (€6.5 trillion). The fund would take a 50% public stake in the country’s leading AI labs and distribute direct payments to Americans.
AI is a public oil field—the bill argues the models draw their value from the collective output of humanity: books, songs, code, journalism, research, conversations and images.
What is Bernie Sanders’ AI bill?
The proposal sets up an American AI Wealth Fund modeled on sovereign wealth funds like the Texas Permanent School Fund, which uses resource rents to support public goods. Sanders’ text claims a handful of firms captured the bulk of AI’s economic value without permission or payment to the creators whose work trained the models.
Under the plan the government would claim a public stake in major AI companies and use dividends and equity value to pay citizens and finance social programs. It’s framed as compensation for a resource—collective human creativity—converted into profit by private labs.
In hallways and on tech panels people are already testing how this idea lands.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has asked state officials to study universal basic capital, and companies inside the industry have voiced support for sharing gains and forming global oversight. OpenAI and Anthropic have publicly discussed mechanisms for distributing wealth and even slowing model development under international governance.
Elon Musk has suggested government checks for workers displaced by AI, and reports say former President Donald Trump has floated equity-sharing with labs such as OpenAI. OpenAI and Anthropic are both planning IPOs later this year, which feeds the valuation math behind Sanders’ $7 trillion estimate.
The fund would be a dam releasing water to parched towns—the bill envisions regular payments and larger investments in healthcare, education and housing drawn from industry rents.
How much would Americans get from the AI fund?
Sanders’ bill projects an annual payment of $1,000 (€930) per American. The senator told reporters that amount “will probably go up as AI becomes more prosperous.” Beyond the cash, the fund could route substantial sums into public programs if returns match the high valuations used in the bill’s estimates.
I’ve spoken to policy advisers and economists who point to precedent for using resource rents in public finance.
There are more than 100 sovereign wealth funds operating in 67 countries. The Texas Permanent School Fund, created in 1854, is a domestic example: it uses revenue from oil and gas extraction to fund public schools. Sanders’ proposal borrows that model but applies it to intellectual inputs rather than natural resources.
Critics will argue about valuation mechanics, legal authority to claim equity, and the political feasibility of taking a public stake in private firms. Supporters point out that OpenAI and Anthropic themselves have acknowledged the problem of concentrated gains and the possible need for redistribution mechanisms.
If you work in media, code, art, or any creative field whose output trains these systems, this legislation asks whether you should see a direct return when the models you contributed to generate billions for investors and executives. If you follow markets, it asks whether the next wave of public finance will be seeded by algorithms instead of barrels.
Do you think a public claim on AI profits is a fair way to spread wealth, or is it a risky redefinition of property that will chill innovation?