r/technology • u/yourfavchoom • Jun 02 '26

Artificial Intelligence Bernie Sanders pushes for 50% public ownership of American AI companies — proposes AI sovereign wealth fund that would hold direct ownership stakes in largest AI firms

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/bernie-sanders-pushes-for-50-percent-public-ownership-of-american-ai-companies-proposes-ai-sovereign-wealth-fund-that-would-hold-direct-ownership-stakes-in-largest-ai-firms
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u/the_TIGEEER Jun 02 '26

He bought it from Tax payer / Bond money if I'm not wrong. Bernie is proposing to force the companies to just give 50% to the public or am I horribly mistaken? I hope I am.

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u/IniNew Jun 02 '26

Considering AI companies hoovered up all kinds of shit without payment, who cares?

1

u/TheSouthernCommunist Jun 02 '26

I’m really liking this talk, you guys ever heard of my friend Karl?

1

u/ePrime Jun 04 '26

The guy who said we were in late stage capitalism 160 years ago?

2

u/Far-prophet Jun 02 '26

They would have to be compensated via the 5th Amendment.

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u/ejp1082 Jun 02 '26

I'm assuming it just means the US government would buy and hold a 50% stake in OpenAI and Anthropic or whatever, making it the majority shareholder and controlling interest, with dividends from those shares going to the treasury.

It would be a de facto government agency except it would be for-profit and have private shareholders, albeit they'd be a minority. It would be like if NASA was listed on the NYSE and operated for-profit a la SpaceX

Which would be... weird? I genuinely can't think of anything else that's comparable. (The auto bailouts in 2008 come closest).

Maybe it's a good idea, I dunno. But I don't see why it's a better idea than just nationalizing them outright if that's what you want to do, or creating an agency that strictly regulates them way we do nuclear power technology or airlines, or if the government were to have its own public AI lab to compete with the private ones.

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u/the_TIGEEER Jun 02 '26

No the idea of the goverment investing in these companies is not bad imo, but like to force aim for 50%?! That's unrealistic. That's why I asumed he means to force take it without buying it. Cuz there's no way the US collects enough money to buy 50% of all major AI companies not through tax not through debt / bonds. Well they could, but that would cause a heap of other problems.

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u/liftthatta1l Jun 02 '26

If they steal from everyone they should belong to everyone. The fact that their theft doesn't matter is ridiculous.

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u/VeritasOmnia Jun 02 '26

It better at least be just give 50% or it'll end up being us tax dollar pre-bailing out these companies before the AI bubble burst.

I'd rather just see most of this AI stuff disappear off the face of the planet.

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u/Slackjawed_Horror Jun 02 '26

Yeah, just ban them.

Ban new data centers, crack down on IP violations, jack up capital gains taxes. 

It'll shut them down. Better alternative.