Washington DC - Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday introduced legislation that would give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest US artificial intelligence companies, the boldest plan yet to redistribute the industry's soaring wealth.

The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would levy a one-time tax – paid in stock rather than cash – equal to half the equity of firms with at least $200 million in annual AI revenue.

The shares would be held in a government-run fund worth an estimated $7 trillion, with a 5% annual dividend delivering direct payments of more than $1,000 to every American.

"We can no longer sit back and allow a handful of Big Tech oligarchs to determine the future of this revolutionary technology with no democratic input," the Vermont independent said.

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The bill has virtually no chance of passing Congress, but Sanders, among the country's most visible politicians, is likely to use it to shape a growing debate over AI, jobs, and inequality.

The proposal enters a debate in which the idea of public stakes in the technology is beginning to make headway – a rarity in a country where decisions about major investments are almost exclusively left to the private sector.

President Donald Trump recently weighed the idea of the government buying shares in AI firms in what he called a possible "partnership with the American public."

In a surprise to many, his administration has separately taken equity-style stakes in several companies, from mineral and semiconductor firms to quantum computing players.

According to news outlet Semafor, White House officials are split on how to structure any stakes in AI firms, among the most valuable companies in the world.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent favors using the equity to seed so-called "Trump accounts" for American children, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick prefers a sovereign wealth fund.

The idea of public participation in AI technology has been pitched to Trump by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and has been floated by Anthropic, the maker of Claude.

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Despite increasing sales and usage, both loss-making companies are under pressure to raise enormous sums to finance the technology, which requires expensive computing to develop.

Sanders' proposal is not the only Democratic push to tax the AI windfall.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is popular on the left, has separately called for a levy on AI firms to support workers displaced by the technology, arguing its gains should not flow only to the wealthy.

Most industry groups and Big Tech companies will fiercely resist a plan that would dilute founder and investor control of the sector's most valuable firms.

Critics also note that Norway's sovereign wealth fund, which Sanders cites approvingly, caps its holdings at 10% of any public company – far below the 50% he proposes.