Most American workers now say if artificial intelligence is going to erase their jobs, it should also help pay their bills.
Story Snapshot
- A new survey shows a solid majority of U.S. workers support an AI wealth fund fed by taxes on large AI companies.
- The idea lines up with Senator Bernie Sanders’ American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would seize 50% of big AI firms’ stock for the public.
- Support is rising as high-profile tech layoffs hit headlines and automation fears grow in offices and factories.
- The plan promises $1,000 a year per person, but the math, legality, and impact on innovation remain hot questions.
Workers see AI layoffs and want a share of the upside
American workers are watching artificial intelligence roll through the economy like a tidal wave, and they are starting to connect the dots between pink slips and record tech valuations.
A recent Verasight poll found about 69% of Americans support forcing large AI companies to transfer half their stock into a public wealth fund. That is not a niche activist number. That is broad, bipartisan anger meeting a very simple idea: if AI cuts my job, it should also cut me a check.
This new anger does not come out of nowhere. Senator Bernie Sanders has spent months warning that artificial intelligence could replace nearly 100 million jobs in the coming decade. U.S. workers are already seeing the early signs.
Tech giants are trimming staff while racing to deploy chatbots, copilots, content tools, and robots that do more work with fewer people. For many workers, the promise of “productivity” sounds less like progress and more like “we do not need you anymore.”
Sanders’ AI wealth fund turns stock into a public paycheck
Into that climate walks the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. The bill would hit the largest AI companies with a one-time 50% tax, not on profits, but on their stock.
Any firm with at least $200 million a year in AI-related sales would have to hand over half its equity into a national fund. This is not a small surtax. It is a forced transfer of ownership, worth an estimated $7 trillion at current valuations.
Majority of U.S. workers support an AI wealth fund as tech layoffs surge, survey finds https://t.co/dIKWDnHuGf
— CNBC (@CNBC) July 12, 2026
Those shares would sit in a trust run by an Independent Commission for Democratic AI, a seven-member board nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The commission would hold voting stock and could use it to block corporate decisions that it believes harm the public.
That means a government-appointed group could have veto power over how America’s biggest AI firms handle safety, data, and even layoffs. Supporters argue that is basic democracy. Critics see it as nationalization in disguise.
How the AI dividend would work — and what the math leaves out
The fund would pay out 5% of its value every year as a dividend. Sanders’ team says that could start at more than $1,000 in cash per person in the United States. For a family of four, that is a meaningful boost toward rent, groceries, or health costs.
The bill also hints that, over time, some of that annual payout could help fund health care, education, housing, and climate projects, echoing Norway’s oil fund or Alaska’s annual oil check.
The numbers, however, raise questions. A fund valued at $7 trillion would throw off about $350 billion a year at a 5% payout, not $700 billion. Even if you accept the larger figure some supporters cite, sending $1,000 to roughly 335 million people would require about $335 billion a year.
That leaves a big unexplained gap between what the fund might earn and what the public is promised. Without independent economic modeling, those rosy projections look more like a campaign slogan than a tight budget.
Big upside promises, big conservative red flags
For many workers, the appeal is simple: AI companies would no longer be free to turn public research, public infrastructure, and public data into private fortunes while everyone else gets a layoff notice.
Sanders leans on a clear moral claim: when a public resource generates wealth, the public should share in that wealth. That resonates with people who watched banks get bailed out and tech billionaires get richer during crises ordinary families never caused.
OpenAI: 69% of Americans Want the U.S. to Seize Half 😳🇺🇸 A Verasight poll found 69% of Americans support forcing big AI firms to hand the public a 50% stake, echoing Senator Bernie Sanders' proposed sovereign wealth fund bill. #AI #OpenAI pic.twitter.com/B5Mueh4JkK
— Zendoric-en (@Zendoricen) July 12, 2026
The bill raises alarms. A one-time 50% equity grab from targeted firms looks less like neutral tax policy and more like punitive confiscation.
That sets a dangerous precedent: if Washington can seize half the stock of one disfavored industry today, it can do the same to oil, farms, or media tomorrow. Markets depend on stable rules. A government that claims half your company because it dislikes your profits is a government investors learn not to trust.
Jobs, innovation, and the risk of killing the golden goose
There is also the basic question of who creates prosperity in the first place. The United States leads the world in artificial intelligence innovation because entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors take big risks to build new companies.
Handing half of every major AI firm to a government-run fund risks driving that talent and capital offshore to friendlier countries. Even some economists who like the idea of a sovereign wealth fund warn that Sanders’ version could be, in one critic’s words, “a death sentence for American technology leadership.”
So far, Sanders’ plan jumps straight to control. That thrills some activists, but it also hands future politicians a loaded weapon aimed at any industry they decide is “too powerful.”
Sources:
cnbc.com, sanders.senate.gov, meritalk.com, reddit.com
