[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 92 (Monday, June 1, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S2467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICAN AI SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUND ACT
Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, artificial intelligence will almost
certainly be the most transformational technology in the history of the
world. It will profoundly impact the lives of every man, woman, and
child in our country and, in fact, throughout the world. It will bring
and it is already bringing unimaginable changes to our economy, to our
democracy and political system, to our emotional well-being, to the
health of our children, to our environment, and to how we educate and
raise our kids.
Further, there is a very real fear that as AI becomes smarter than
humans, it could eventually function independent of human control with
potentially catastrophic consequences. That is not me; that is what
Nobel Prize scientists and experts are saying.
The question, then, is not whether AI will change the world. It will.
The question is: Who will own and control the future? Who will benefit
from AI, and who will be hurt by it? Will AI be used to make life
better for working families? Will it enrich our quality of life? Will
it help us eliminate poverty, extend life expectancies, and help us
solve the climate crisis? Or will the future of humanity be determined
by a handful of some of the wealthiest people on the planet who have
promoted and developed AI, with no democratic input, in order for them
to become even richer and more powerful than they are today? That is
the choice before us.
Let us be clear. AI was not created out of thin air. It was not a
brilliant idea that just popped into Mark Zuckerberg's head or Elon
Musk's imagination. The foundation of AI is our collective human
intelligence. Let me repeat that. The foundation of AI is based on our
collective human intelligence: our books, songs, artwork, journalism,
computer code, scientific research, videos, conversations, images, and
ideas spanning generations. It is our tweets, our Facebook posts, our
TikTok videos, our Reddit comments. It is everything that human beings
produce and that is absorbed into the digital world. That is not just
my opinion. According to Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, AI models were
trained on our ``collective experience, knowledge'' and ``learnings of
humanity.'' That is Mr. Altman, the head of OpenAI.
The reality is that Big Tech oligarchs have fed this knowledge into
their AI models without permission, without acknowledgement, and
without compensation. In other words, the creative work of many
millions of people--writers, artists, musicians, journalists, teachers,
scientists, and ordinary people--has been stolen--has been stolen--by
the wealthiest people in the world.
The time has come for us to reclaim what was stolen from us. Since AI
is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it
generates must benefit humanity--not just Elon Musk, not just Jeff
Bezos, not just Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Ellison and the other
multibillionaires who have invested hundreds of billions into the
development and implementation of AI, not the venture capitalists in
Silicon Valley or the vulture funds on Wall Street who see AI as the
next great wealth-extracting machine.
That is why in the coming weeks, I will be introducing the American
AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. This legislation would give the public a
direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in our country. How
would it do that? Through a one-time, 50-percent tax not on the profits
of the largest AI companies in the United States but something that is
far more valuable than that: the stock.
If passed, this legislation would do two critical things:
First, it would give the American people a direct role in determining
the future of this technology. No longer would the future of AI and the
transformation of human life that it will bring be dictated by a
handful of Big Tech oligarchs. These people do not have the right to
determine the future of humanity. Under this bill, the Federal
Government would have the power, through its voting shares and an equal
representation on each company's board, to block decisions that hurt
the public and to push for policies that help them.
Secondly, this legislation would guarantee that the trillions of
dollars potentially created by AI are used to improve the lives of all
of us, not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer.
Further, if these AI companies continue to grow as dramatically as many
analysts expect, then the value of the sovereign wealth fund created
under this bill would grow as well, and the benefits to the American
people would grow along with it.
Let us be clear. This is not an original idea. In fact, it is an idea
that has been endorsed by some of the leading AI companies in America.
For example, OpenAI recently proposed creating a ``Public Wealth Fund
that provides every citizen--including those not invested in financial
markets--with a stake in AI-driven economic growth.'' Anthropic also
proposed the creation of ``national sovereign wealth funds with stakes
in A.I.'' Elon Musk, the owner of xAI, went further and said that
``Universal HIGH INCOME via checks issued by the Federal government is
the best way to deal with unemployment caused by AI.''
Let us not forget, over 100 sovereign wealth funds exist all over the
world. Again, this is not a new idea. Norway's sovereign wealth fund--
the largest in the world--was funded from the country's abundance in
oil and is now worth more than $2 trillion. Instead of a few oil
executives pocketing all the benefits of that natural resource, Norway
made the decision that the wealth created from it should be used to
improve life for all of their people.
This concept also exists right here in the United States. Fifty years
ago, Alaska created a sovereign wealth fund from the State's oil
revenues, and for decades, it has paid dividends directly to Alaskans.
In 2022, that check was over $3,000 per person. In 2023, it was $1,300
per person. In 2024, it was $1,700. Last year, it was $1,000. This is a
direct check coming from a sovereign fund in Alaska to the people of
that State. Even President Trump, in an Executive order, has proposed
establishing a U.S. sovereign wealth fund.
The billions, if not trillions, of dollars generated by this
legislation would provide direct payments to the American people.
Further, as the fund generates more and more wealth, the proceeds would
be used to ensure that every man, woman, and child in our country has a
decent and dignified standard of living, including healthcare,
education, and housing.
The principle behind this legislation is simple: When a public
resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. In
this case, artificial intelligence is being built on a public resource
far more valuable than oil: the accumulated knowledge, creativity, and
labor of humanity throughout history. That is what AI is all about.
Bottom line: The future of AI and the fate of humanity must not be
decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley by the wealthiest people
in the world. It must not be dictated by billionaires seeking to
maximize their power and their profit. It must be decided by workers,
parents, teachers, artists, scientists, communities, and the American
people.
It is our future. We must decide it. Let's get it done.
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