Survey: 69% of Americans Back Forcing AI Giants to Transfer Half Their Stock to a Public Wealth Fund

A new national survey of 1,700 adults by Verasight finds that 69 percent of US workers support requiring major AI companies to transfer 50 percent of their stock into a public wealth fund. The finding lends significant public backing to Senator Bernie Sanders' proposed American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, introduced in June, which would target large AI firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic and, at current valuations, would create a fund Sanders estimates at roughly $7 trillion.

Verasight CEO Benjamin Leff described the results as reflecting public appetite to redistribute AI's economic gains to broader society. The proposal is not without critics, however — some argue that handing the government a major ownership stake in AI companies could ultimately reduce regulatory pressure on those same firms and entrench their political influence further.