Bernie Sanders Unveils Bold $7 Trillion Plan to Put Americans in Control of the AI Industry
Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced one of the most sweeping pieces of artificial intelligence legislation in American political history — a $7 trillion proposal designed to shift power and profits away from Silicon Valley's most powerful AI companies and directly into the hands of everyday Americans. The plan, shared exclusively with AP News ahead of its formal introduction, combines aggressive taxation of the largest AI firms with the creation of a national sovereign wealth fund that would deliver annual dividends to every American citizen.
If passed, the legislation would fundamentally reshape who benefits from the AI revolution — and that prospect is already sending shockwaves through the tech industry.
What Is Sanders' AI Plan and How Does It Work?
At the core of Sanders' proposal is a one-time 50 percent tax levied on the stock of the largest artificial intelligence companies in the United States. The revenue generated from this tax would be used to establish a sovereign wealth fund — a government-managed investment pool that would grow over time and generate ongoing returns for the public.
The tax would apply to any AI firm generating $200 million or more in annual AI-related sales. Crucially, the legislation also includes a forward-looking provision: any new company that reaches that $200 million revenue threshold in the future would also become subject to the tax. This ensures the fund continues to grow as the AI industry expands, rather than becoming a one-time windfall that stagnates over time.
Sanders estimates the total value of the sovereign wealth fund could reach $7 trillion, making it one of the largest government-controlled investment vehicles in the world. By comparison, Norway's Government Pension Fund Global — widely considered the model for sovereign wealth funds — currently holds approximately $1.7 trillion in assets. Sanders' proposed fund would dwarf it several times over.
What Would Americans Receive From the Fund?
The financial benefits to individual Americans are central to Sanders' pitch for the legislation. According to his estimates, the sovereign wealth fund would generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually, distributed across two main channels: direct payments to Americans and funding for public programs including health care, education, and housing.
On the direct payment side, Sanders estimates that each American would receive more than $1,000 per year in dividend payments, tied to a projected 5 percent annual return on the fund. For a household of four, that would amount to more than $4,000 per year — a meaningful sum for working- and middle-class families who have largely been locked out of the financial gains produced by the tech sector's explosive growth in recent years.
The broader public program funding would add another layer of benefit, effectively using AI-generated wealth to address some of the most persistent challenges facing American society. From lowering health care costs to expanding access to affordable housing, the proposal frames the AI boom not as a private windfall but as a public resource.
Why Sanders Is Targeting the AI Industry
Sanders has long been a vocal critic of concentrated corporate wealth, and his focus on the AI industry reflects a broader argument he has been making for decades: that transformative technologies developed with public investment and public infrastructure should generate public returns.
The AI industry's rapid rise has produced extraordinary wealth for a small number of companies and their shareholders. Firms like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and Meta have collectively attracted trillions of dollars in market valuation, while critics argue that ordinary Americans — whose data, labor, and public resources helped build the internet infrastructure these companies rely on — have seen little direct benefit.
Sanders' legislation appears designed to directly challenge that dynamic. By taxing the stock of these companies rather than just their income or profits, the proposal targets the accumulated market value that AI firms have built up, much of which remains untaxed until shares are sold.
How Would This Affect Major AI Companies?
For the AI industry, a 50 percent stock tax would represent a seismic financial event. Companies like Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon — all of which have significant AI revenue streams — could find themselves subject to the levy. The legislation's reach extends beyond pure-play AI firms to any large company whose AI-related sales cross the $200 million threshold, meaning the net could be cast very wide.
Unsurprisingly, the proposal has not been warmly received in tech circles. A tax of this scale would force major restructuring decisions across the industry and could alter investment strategies, hiring plans, and research priorities at some of America's most valuable companies.
What Are the Chances It Becomes Law?
Sanders' proposal faces a steep path to passage. Large-scale corporate taxes face fierce opposition in Congress, particularly from lawmakers with close ties to the technology sector, and the current political climate makes sweeping redistributive legislation difficult to advance. However, the bill serves an important function even if it does not pass in its current form: it forces a national conversation about who owns the AI future.
As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in the economy — automating jobs, concentrating market power, and reshaping entire industries — questions about public oversight, taxation, and benefit-sharing are only going to intensify.
The Bigger Picture: AI Wealth and Public Benefit
Bernie Sanders' $7 trillion AI plan is provocative by design. Whether one views it as visionary policy or political theater, it crystallizes a debate that is gaining urgency around the world: as a small number of companies build technologies that could rival the economic impact of the industrial revolution, should the rewards flow primarily to shareholders, or should they be shared broadly with the public that makes those technologies possible?
The answer to that question will shape the economic landscape of the coming decades — and Sanders, for his part, is making sure the loudest possible version of that argument is on the table.