Nationalizing AI proposed as answer to bubble risk

Silicon Valley’s AI boom is drawing enormous capital, with Bloomberg reporting that financiers plan to put some $700 billion into the industry this year. AI stocks now represent roughly a third of the stock market and 45 percent of the S&P 500’s total market capitalization, raising concerns that a burst bubble could damage the wider economy while automation pressures workers.

The public-ownership case rests on two claims: taxpayers have helped build the technology sector, and AI systems have been trained on vast bodies of human-created work without credit or payment. The comparison is drawn with the auto rescue, when the government at one point owned 61 percent of General Motors but did not secure lasting public returns before the company later pursued buybacks of $10 billion in 2023 and $6 billion in 2024.

Bernie Sanders’s proposal would require the largest AI companies to transfer 50 percent of their stock into a public fund, modeled on sovereign wealth funds tied to Norway and Alaska’s oil and gas reserves. Revenue from AI would be redirected toward infrastructure, education, energy, advanced manufacturing and social services, shifting gains from private owners to public purposes.