Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation that would introduce an annual $1,000 payment to Americans funded by a one-time 50% tax on stock from major AI companies. This initiative aims to give the public a stake in these firms through a sovereign wealth fund projected to be worth around $7 trillion. The fund would yield a 5% annual dividend to cover the payouts. New AI companies earning over $200 million annually would also be included in the fund. This bipartisan proposal reflects growing concerns over economic disruptions caused by AI technology. Sanders highlighted the need for public control rather than allowing a small group of wealthy individuals to dominate the sector. While both Sanders and former President Trump have expressed interest in public ownership models, the bill faces challenges in a Republican-controlled Congress.

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Bernie Sanders pitches $1,000 annual payout from public ownership of AI

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 3: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) talks to reporters following a meeting with CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman at the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington, DC on June 3, 2026. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)·Washington Post·Anadolu via Getty Images

Thu, June 18, 2026 at 1:25 PM EDT4 min read

Americans could receive an annual $1,000 payment from artificial intelligence companies under legislation Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced Thursday that would give the public a direct stake in the largest AI firms - an idea that has been echoed by President Donald Trump.

Although unlikely to become law, Sanders's proposal adds to recent interest from across the political spectrum in the idea that economic disruption from AI could be offset by the U.S. government holding stakes in firms developing the technology.

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Trump said earlier this month that he is considering taking a government stake in leading AI companies, though his administration has not offered more detail.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its rival Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, have both floated their own ideas for companies to give the American public a stake in their growth. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

Under Sanders's proposal, leading AI companies would pay a one-time 50 percent tax of stock that would feed into a sovereign wealth fund expected to be worth around $7 trillion, according to a summary of the legislation provided by Sanders's office.

"This revolutionary technology cannot be controlled by a handful of the wealthiest people on Earth whose sole goal is to make as much money as they can," Sanders told reporters Thursday.

A 5 percent dividend from the fund could be used to send a $1,000 check to everyone in the U.S. annually, Sanders's office estimated.

Under the senator's proposal, the sovereign wealth fund would be managed by a seven-person independent commission that would be represented on the boards of companies in the fund. Congress would create a list of potential nominees to the commission, who would be chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

New AI companies would be swept into the sovereign wealth fund if they reach a certain size, such as $200 million in annual sales. Sanders's office said that the AI businesses of sprawling technology companies, which could include giants such as Nvidia, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Elon Musk's SpaceX, would be included.

Companies would be required to separate their AI and non-AI businesses, it said, although it is unclear exactly how that distinction would be made. (Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with Sanders to discuss the idea earlier this month. But Altman and other AI executives are "very hard" to talk to, Sanders said, "because they have a gun at our heads," citing millions of dollars that AI-aligned groups are pouring into elections.

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Sanders said he has not discussed his proposal with officials at the White House, despite Trump expressing interest in a similar proposal. Some in the administration are "rethinking their original position" of taking a light regulatory touch to AI companies, Sanders said. "There's an understanding there's an existential threat."

It would be a steep climb for Sanders's bill to become law in the Republican-controlled Congress. But the alignment between Trump and Sanders, who agree on very little politically, shows how fears of AI downsides are creating unlikely bedfellows and once-unthinkable policy ideas, said Sam Manning, a senior research fellow at technology policy organization GovAI.

"This Overton window is shifting rapidly," he said. "Things that you might have thought were completely off the table six months or a year ago, you should expect many of them to be increasingly on the table."

Americans remain skeptical of AI technology. A Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday found that a significant majority of the public is concerned that AI is advancing too quickly, doesn't believe the government can effectively regulate AI and doesn't trust the businesses developing AI.

It remains unclear whether distributing stock of AI companies or cash derived from them would ease public discontent about the technology.

Besides OpenAI and Anthropic, other major AI developers have largely been silent or not publicly receptive to the possibility of government-backed public ownership of AI companies. "We're not really interested in selling ourselves to any government," Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview released this week.

TechNet, a trade association whose members include Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, said it is pushing Congress for AI guardrails and workforce development policies that will help Americans benefit from and trust the technology.

In a sign of how the idea of public ownership of AI stakes can win over skeptics of AI regulation, former Trump administration AI and crypto czar David Sacks recently said that he opposed Sanders's blueprint but could get behind the general concept.

"I do have sympathy for where it's coming from," Sacks said last week on "All In," an influential technology podcast. He said he could support voluntary ideas for some public ownership of AI companies.