B. Sanders to introduce bill giving the public a 50% stake in top AI companies \ stacker news

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B. Sanders to introduce bill giving the public a 50% stake in top AI companies blockspace.media/insight/bernie-sanders-ai-bill-50-percent-stake/

933 sats \ 13 comments \ @0xbitcoiner 2 Jun lol AI Politics_And_Law Stacker_Stocks econ

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he will soon introduce the American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a bill that would impose a one-time 50% tax on the largest AI companies, paid in stock rather than cash. The proposal would give the public a direct ownership stake in those firms and grant the federal government voting shares and equal representation on each company’s board.

Sanders laid out the plan in a New York Times guest essay published Sunday. He named OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI as targets and framed AI-generated wealth as a public resource. “Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity,” Sanders said.

The federal government would use its voting shares and board seats “to block decisions that hurt our citizens and to push for policies that help them,” according to the essay. Sanders said the fund’s returns would flow back to the public through direct payments and spending on healthcare, education, and housing.

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44 sats \ 0 replies \ @unboiled 8h

I mean, it's only half communist. Coming from Bernie, I guess that's progress?

44 sats \ 7 replies \ @BlokchainB 2 Jun

Not a bad idea! Use the proceeds to fund government actions and cut income taxes

23 sats \ 5 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 23h

a bill that would impose a one-time 50% tax on the largest AI companies, paid in stock rather than cash.

Isn't this just ripping off investors? Or am I missing something?

44 sats \ 4 replies \ @BlokchainB 23h

Investors benefit. More of this stock float taken off the market.

65 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 13h

If the government bought those shares, it would be stock float taken off the market.
But they're confiscating them.

And how would it benefit the normal shareholders if their vote stops counting, because the government has 50% voting power and ensures the company serves the government's agenda rather than what the market wants?

116 sats \ 2 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 23h

That happens if they don't issue new shares to pay the tax. And what are companies gonna say? That doesn't sound like US stuff, feels like communism. Or am I tripping?

44 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB 21h

Central bank = communism.
All the bailouts the government has done. Think of this in the same category companies being forced to give equity to the government.

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @0xbitcoiner OP 13h

[...]

Gee, what could go wrong?

For starters, the federal government already regulates these companies. It buys from them, taxes them, and investigates them. It can sue them, prosecute them, or even subsidize them. So when the government becomes a major shareholder, neutrality becomes impossible. It’s the corporate equivalent of referees in the NBA Finals or Stanley Cup Final having a financial stake in the teams on the court or ice: They’re no longer just calling the game, they have skin in it.

Sanders points to Norway’s and Alaska’s wealth funds as models, but those comparisons don’t work. Norway and Alaska built their funds from resource revenues generated by oil and minerals the government already owned or controlled—not by imposing a 50 percent stock tax on private companies or installing political directors on corporate boards. Whatever one thinks of those funds, they’re hardly precedents for Washington to confiscate half of private firms because some politicians declare an industry too important to be left alone.

But as Sanders notes, it’s Trump who helped open this door with his February 2025 executive order directing the Treasury and Commerce Departments to develop a plan for a US sovereign wealth fund. It was a bad idea then, and it’s only gotten worse as the administration has instead pursued an ad hoc presidential investment portfolio to avoid Congress creating a formal legal structure with funding rules, transparency, and guardrails.

That administration has now taken or announced equity stakes, warrants, and a golden share in over 20 private companies. No longer content to subsidize, regulate, or contract with private firms, the Trump administration has sought to own, steer, and discipline them.

Trump’s supporters and apologists call this hard-nosed dealmaking, but it’s a grotesquely transactional form of state corporatism. It’s also utterly corrupt.

That’s the Pandora’s box the Trump administration has opened, and Sanders is showing exactly what could come next.

[...]

https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-opened-door-sanderss-sovereign-wealth-fund

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 13h

Precisely what Chinas state capitalism economic model does with public ownership of strategic assets.

185 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 2 Jun

Crazy Bernie, but this is actually quite notable.

#1479698

The Overton Window shift is in full motion. Trump with the stake in Intel, Trump Accounts, Sov Wealth Fund... Bessent's financial literacy initiative... the notion that owning Bitcoin is owning equity in the world economy...

Now this gets the Berners onboard with the idea... imagine these pinkos all of a sudden being in support of nukes and datacenters because they own a piece. 5D chess.