David Sacks Criticizes Proposed AI Nationalization
President Donald Trump said on June 5, 2026 that his administration is considering direct government equity stakes in major AI companies including OpenAI and Anthropic, a stance that converges with Senator Bernie Sanders' American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, a bill that would impose a one-time 50% stock tax on large AI firms to seed a roughly $7 trillion public fund. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had privately pitched a similar stake concept to Trump officials before Sanders went public, according to NOTUS, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. David Sacks, Trump's former AI and crypto czar, denounced the convergence in a lengthy X post, warning that nationalization of AI would accelerate "the corporate-government fusion we're already sliding toward" and could produce a "CCP-style social credit system." The unusual left-right alignment comes as OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI report steep losses ahead of expected IPOs.
The notable signal here is not the Sacks-Sanders spat but that a sitting Republican president and a democratic socialist senator arrived at the same policy instinct within days of each other: government equity in frontier AI labs. For practitioners and firms racing toward IPOs, ownership structure just became a live Washington conversation rather than a fringe proposal, and it arrives alongside Trump's separate push for a 30-day government review of advanced models before release.
What happened
On June 5, 2026, President Trump told reporters the U.S. government may take direct equity stakes in AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, describing it as a "partnership" that could let "the American public essentially become a partner with the companies." Hours earlier, David Sacks, Trump's former AI and crypto czar, had published a lengthy X post criticizing Senator Bernie Sanders' proposal for a 50% government stake in AI firms, writing "Nationalization of AI will accelerate the corporate-government fusion we're already sliding toward" and warning of a "CCP-style social credit system." Sacks nonetheless conceded the proposal "resonates, including with many on the right," and said he could "almost support the Sanders proposal as a stupidity tax," blaming AI CEOs Sam Altman and Dario Amodei for walking back earlier warnings about mass AI-driven job losses. Separately, OpenAI's Altman had privately pitched a government-stake concept to administration officials before Sanders went public, first reported by NOTUS and confirmed by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.
Policy context
Sanders' American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, detailed in his June 1 New York Times op-ed, would impose a one-time 50% stock tax (paid in shares, not cash) on AI companies with at least $200 million in annual revenue, depositing the stock into a public fund with an Independent Commission for Democratic AI holding board seats and voting shares. Sanders cites Norway's and Alaska's sovereign wealth funds as precedent, and notes OpenAI and Anthropic have each floated their own versions of a public AI wealth fund. The Cato Institute estimates the Trump administration already holds equity, warrant, or "golden share" stakes in roughly 20 companies, including Intel, MP Materials, IBM, and GlobalFoundries, making an AI stake a continuation of an existing pattern rather than a new one.
Financial context
The proposal lands as the economics of frontier AI labs remain strained. OpenAI's internal projections reportedly show losses tripling to $14 billion in 2026 and totaling $44 billion through 2029, per The Information; xAI lost $6.4 billion on $3.2 billion of revenue in 2025. Anthropic is the exception, on pace for its first profitable quarter with annualized revenue near $47 billion as of May, up roughly 47-fold from early 2025. Palantir CEO Alex Karp separately warned peers this week that "the momentum is on the side of people who want to nationalize" AI labs, tying the political pressure to AI-attributed layoffs, which have topped 142,000 in 2026.
For practitioners
A government equity stake, even a partial or voluntary one, would likely come bundled with governance strings, such as board representation, vote-blocking rights on decisions affecting the public, and closer alignment with the June 2 executive order's 30-day pre-release model review. Firms preparing IPOs (OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI via SpaceX) should expect investor questions about dilution risk and compute-procurement conditions tied to any dividend-style public benefit structure.
What to watch
Sanders has said the formal bill text, including implementation mechanics and spending priorities, is coming "in the coming weeks." Trump has said he expects to meet with AI company leaders as soon as next week to discuss partnership terms. Watch for whether that meeting produces a concrete framework, and whether Republican lawmakers who have resisted AI legislation shift position given Trump's own openness to the idea.
Timeline
Sanders publishes a New York Times op-ed unveiling the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, proposing a 50% government stock stake in large AI companies.
Trump signs an executive order asking AI companies to voluntarily submit advanced models for a 30-day government review before public release.
Trump tells reporters the government may take equity partnerships in AI firms; David Sacks publishes an X post criticizing the Sanders proposal the same day.
Fortune and Gizmodo report on Sacks' comments and the broader Trump-Sanders policy convergence.
Key Points
- 1Trump said the government may take equity stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI firms, unexpectedly aligning with Sanders' proposal.
- 2Sanders' bill would impose a one-time 50% stock tax on major AI companies to seed a roughly $7 trillion public wealth fund.
- 3The convergence signals growing bipartisan appetite for government equity conditions on frontier AI labs ahead of expected IPOs.
Scoring Rationale
Upgraded from thin single-source coverage to multi-outlet verified reporting (Fortune x2, Gizmodo, Sanders' own op-ed) confirming a sitting president publicly entertaining direct equity stakes in the largest AI labs, converging with a concrete Senate bill (50% stock tax, ~$7T fund) - a materially bigger and better-sourced story than the original single-outlet framing suggested, though still policy-stage discussion rather than enacted law.
Sources
Public references used for this report.
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