In June, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the first AI tax in history, the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which took up our AI equity tax framework. The bill proposes making the biggest AI companies owe the public half the equity in each company’s AI business, paid in newly issued shares.
The essential nature of a tax is that it’s mandatory, which is why a tax is the best way to secure the public’s standing as a co-owner of AI. Plus, the public supports an AI equity tax. Last month, a national poll found 69% of Americans in favor of requiring the largest AI companies to transfer half their stock into a public sovereign wealth fund.
A deal between Altman and Trump would bind OpenAI to the current administration in the public’s name, at least symbolically. Yet the rights would belong to the administration, and the public would likely have no recourse if a later administration unwound the arrangement.
The Trump Administration has taken equity stakes in more than two dozen companies over the past year. The trend in those deals is that the rights belong to the administration, rather than being directly owed to citizens. And public dollars have to be handed over in exchange for the shares, putting the public on the hook.
Two deals illustrate how this works and why we should be wary. Trump publicly demanded Intel’s chief executive’s resignation. Only weeks later, the administration had its stake, a position that is now worth tens of billions. And as a condition for approval of the Nippon Steel acquisition, the administration took a golden share in U.S. Steel: “I, President Donald J. Trump, hold the Class G Preferred Stock (Golden Share) in U.S. Steel,” the President wrote in the Federal Register. The issue in both of these cases: one person, Trump, wields unprecedented power.
We can guess where the public’s best interests could be treated as bargaining chips. OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing IPOs and likely need the administration’s goodwill. OpenAI, for example, is currently under pressure from the government to limit GPT-5.6’s release—a constraint the administration might be persuaded to drop in exchange for a donated equity stake. The administration’s record shows it accepts equity as consideration for looking the other way or relenting. Yet none of these dealings inherently benefit the American public.
The outcome of the midterms will likely determine whether Sanders’ AI equity tax advances, and thus the coming months may decide who owns America’s AI future. In the meantime, Trump and Altman may move ahead with their visions.
In our view, one design courts more corruption and wealth consolidation; the other ensures that, if AI ushers in any prosperity, it will be shared broadly, transparently, and with public accountability.
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