Sanders Targets OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI With 50% Tax

Senator Bernie Sanders announced a plan this week to seize half the stock of OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI, depositing the shares into a federally managed sovereign wealth fund that would give the government voting power at each company's board and eventually distribute returns directly to American citizens.

TL;DR

Sanders' American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would impose a one-time 50% stock tax on OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI
Payment would be in shares, not cash - government gets equal board representation and voting rights
Fund returns earmarked for direct citizen payments plus healthcare, education, and housing
Both OpenAI and Anthropic have previously proposed sovereign wealth funds, creating an unusual alignment

Sanders laid out the case in a June 2 New York Times op-ed, writing:

"When a public resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. AI is being built on a public resource far more valuable than oil: the accumulated knowledge, creativity, and labor of mankind."

He plans to formally introduce the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in the coming weeks, with detailed mechanics to follow.

What the Bill Does

Companies

The proposal targets the three US AI companies with the highest private valuations. Anthropic closed a $65 billion Series H that put its post-money value at about $965 billion. OpenAI's latest funding round valued the company in the same neighborhood, with a public listing expected later this year. xAI, now merged into SpaceX in an all-stock deal, carries a combined valuation that Musk has put north of $1.25 trillion.

Each company would transfer 50% of its existing shares to the government fund in a one-time transaction. No cash changes hands. The fund holds those shares permanently as a public asset and collects whatever dividends or appreciation follows.

Users

Every American citizen would be a beneficiary. Sanders frames this as returning AI wealth to the people whose intellectual output - books, journalism, scientific research, creative work - trained the models in the first place. The fund would make direct payments to individuals and reinvest in public services.

The Government as Shareholder

The board representation clause is where the bill gets complicated. The federal government would hold seats equal to 50% of the board at each target company, giving it co-equal power over major strategic decisions. Sanders says this would let the government "block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them."

Critics at the Cato Institute raised a different framing: the government that sets AI regulation would also be a major shareholder in the companies it oversees. That conflict of interest doesn't appear in the bill as described.

Impact Assessment

Stakeholder	Impact	Timeline
OpenAI	50% equity transfer to federal fund	If signed into law
Anthropic	50% equity transfer, ahead of IPO	If signed into law
xAI / SpaceX	50% equity transfer	If signed into law
Private investors	Effective 50% dilution of existing stakes	If signed into law
American citizens	Direct ownership stake + distribution potential	After fund establishes
Federal government	Voting seats at boards of major AI companies	After fund establishes

The US Capitol building, where Sanders plans to introduce the legislation Sanders plans to introduce the bill in the Senate in the coming weeks. Source: pexels.com

An Unusual Alignment

The bill's most striking detail is how much agreement it's found on paper from the companies it'd tax.

OpenAI published an April 2026 policy paper calling for a public wealth fund with automatic citizen stakes in AI-driven economic growth. Anthropic, in its own policy writing, proposed national sovereign wealth funds with AI equity stakes. Sanders cited both proposals directly.

The Trump administration has separately signaled interest in a government equity stake in OpenAI, having already bought equity positions in roughly 20 private companies through warrants and golden shares in other sectors. Fortune reported that the Trump White House "seems to agree" with the basic concept of public AI ownership, though the administration hasn't endorsed Sanders' specific mechanism.

The convergence is politically unusual. Sanders and Trump rarely agree on economic policy. But both appear to be working from the same underlying claim: that the gains from AI shouldn't accrue entirely to venture capitalists and early employees.

Stock market and investment activity - the financial stakes in AI ownership are now a political issue Combined, the three targeted companies carry private valuations that would put the proposed fund in the hundreds of billions. Source: unsplash.com

The Critics

Reason's analysis offered the most direct challenge: Sanders cited Norway's oil fund and Alaska's Permanent Fund as structural models, but both are funded by government-owned natural resource revenues, not by forced equity transfers from private companies. Norway's fund also limits itself to roughly 10% ownership of any individual company, a fraction of the 50% Sanders is proposing.

The private company problem is practical, not ideological. OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI don't have publicly traded shares. How does a government compel the transfer of 50% of a private company's equity, set a fair price, and enforce the transaction without the company's consent? Sanders' op-ed didn't address it.

There's also the question of what changes the day after the law passes. The government holds 50% of Anthropic. Who sits on the board? Who manages the fund? What happens to the valuation if Anthropic's IPO is already filed but the shares are being seized at a different price? The bill text hasn't been released, so these questions are currently unanswered.

What Happens Next

The bill faces steep odds in the current Senate. Democratic colleagues haven't lined up behind the proposal and Republican leadership has shown no enthusiasm. Even if it passes as introduced, constitutional challenges to a forced equity transfer would follow right away.

But the legislative math may not be the point. Both of the companies Sanders is targeting have told regulators they believe the public deserves a stake in AI wealth. If that argument gains traction in the next six months - as OpenAI and Anthropic both prepare for public listings - the specific mechanism becomes a bargaining chip rather than a fringe idea.

The question Sanders is actually asking - who owns the economic upside of AI? - isn't going away. Whether a 50% stock seizure is the answer is a different matter completely.

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