69% of Americans back public ownership of AI firms as tech layoffs mount, survey reveals

Majority of U.S. workers support an AI wealth fund as tech layoffs surge, survey finds

A majority of U.S. employees now want to hold corporations more accountable via an AI sovereign wealth fund, amid dissatisfaction over a growing number of tech layoffs despite higher overall corporate profits, according to a recent poll. The national survey of 1,690 adults by research firm Verasight, which was carried out in June and published earlier this month, suggests that 69% of Americans now support "forcing" AI firms to transfer 50% of their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund. "In the eyes of the public, AI Sovereign funds are seen as a tool to distribute the gains from the AI industry back to broader society," said Benjamin Leff, chief executive officer of Verasight. In June, Senator Bernie Sanders proposed the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act which, if passed, would give the public a 50% stake in the largest AI companies in the U.S. "It would guarantee that the economic benefits generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us -- not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer," Sanders said in a statement last month. "The future of AI and the fate of humanity must not be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley by billionaires seeking to maximize their power and profit," Sanders said. The rising number of tech layoffs in the U.S. have left many workers frustrated and worried over job security, as corporations continue to ramp up capital expenditure for AI expansion. Goldman Sachs Senior Global Economist Joseph Briggs estimates that more than 9% of the labor force, or around 15 million workers, could lose their jobs during a 10-year AI transition period, the bank said in a report published last month. This "would be the type of automation and reallocation shock that we saw in the late '90s and early 2000s and in other periods of significant technological change," Briggs said. "But [Briggs] believes these losses will prove temporary owing to his expectation that AI will create many new jobs over the long term even as it destroys existing ones," the Goldman Sachs report says. Sovereign wealth funds can serve in multiple roles when it comes to AI. They can lead development of AI at a national level by funding capital-intensive AI infrastructure, take equity stakes in AI companies and capture a share of AI-driven economic gains for the public treasury, according to research firm Windfall Trust. However, sovereign wealth funds could also face challenges in managing between the public good and the global race to build AI capabilities. "There is also a tension between the financial mandate (maximize returns for citizens) and the strategic mandate (build national AI capacity, maintain influence over frontier systems), since these objectives can conflict when the best financial investment is a foreign AI company rather than a domestic one," Windfall Trust added.

Over 2/3 of Americans Support Bernie Sanders-Style AI Stock Ownership Plan, Poll Shows

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' particular flavor of AI populism is more reverent at awed about the tech itself -- and maybe a little more credulous -- than many of his AI-skeptical fans would probably like. Nonetheless, a new poll shows that the broad strokes of his actual proposal for dealing with the economics of AI are overwhelmingly popular, at an astonishing 69% support. His plan, called the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, is sorta like diet nationalization. In his own words, it goes like this: "This legislation would give the public a direct ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America through a one time 50% tax, not on profits, but on stock." You're the captain now, American taxpayer. You own Big AI. Let's make sure it only does good things, and let's all reap the rewards. Plus, even if the stock tanks, it's not like we paid for it. And if one poll is any indication, America is onboard. A June poll by the research firm Verasight says a plan that would "require" the big AI companies to transfer half of their stock to a sovereign wealth fund owned by the public was supported by over two thirds of respondents. Interestingly, they polled with and without Bernie Sanders' name in the question. There was a slight dip in overall support -- down to 64% -- when their question was phrased like this: "Recently, Senator Bernie Sanders proposed legislation that would require artificial intelligence companies to transfer 50% of their stock to a fund owned by the American public. Do you support or oppose this proposal?" But the percentage of respondents who said they "strongly" support the plan in that case actually increased by 3%. In addition to the public receiving a share of the profits, by the way, Sanders' proposal calls for the public to partially control the companies themselves. "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 our citizens and to push for policies that help them," he wrote in the New York Times.

69% of Americans back public ownership of big AI firms

A Verasight survey of 1,690 US adults found 69% support forcing AI companies to transfer 50% of their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund, the policy at the heart of Bernie Sanders's American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act. The shift tracks a labour market where tech made up nearly a third of US layoffs in H1 2026 while the same firms raised AI capex. The article presents the counterarguments too: property-rights objections, chilled investment, disputed displacement forecasts, and survey-wording effects. An idea that sounded radical a year ago is now a majority position. Nearly seven in ten Americans support forcing AI companies to transfer half their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund, CNBC reports. The figure comes from a Verasight survey of 1,690 US adults, conducted in June. It found 69% backing for the policy. The public sees such funds as a way to route the gains of the AI industry back to society, Verasight chief executive Benjamin Leff said. That framing is doing a lot of work. Where the idea came from The proposal is not hypothetical. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in June, which would hand the public a 50% stake in the largest US AI firms. Sanders has pitched it as a roughly $7 trillion fund. The argument is that the public paid for the research and the infrastructure, so the public should share the returns. He is not alone in the direction of travel. Senator Ed Markey's recent AI Accountability Agenda lists "sharing the AI wealth" among its six priorities. Why the mood shifted The context is a labour market that keeps absorbing bad news. Tech accounted for close to a third of US layoffs in the first half of 2026, and AI is increasingly named as the reason. The projections are grimmer still. Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs has estimated more than 9% of the labour force, around 15 million workers, could lose jobs across a decade-long AI transition. Meanwhile the same companies doing the cutting are raising their AI capital spending. That juxtaposition, layoffs alongside record investment, is what makes the ownership argument land. The human cost is not evenly distributed either, as TNW has written on the people left behind by tech layoffs and AI hype. Polling captures the resentment better than it captures the remedy. The case against Critics see a forced transfer of private property dressed up as a dividend. Seizing half of a company's equity, on this view, would chill investment and drive AI development offshore. There is also a question about the premise. Sam Altman has argued an AI jobs apocalypse is unlikely, and if he is right, a policy built on mass displacement is solving the wrong problem. The survey wording matters too. Asking whether firms should be "forced" to transfer stock invites a different answer than asking about the trade-offs, and pollsters have long known that abstract redistribution polls better than its specifics. Where it goes Other countries are already reaching for blunter tools. Chinese courts have ruled that replacing a worker with AI is not lawful grounds for firing them, a protection with no US or EU equivalent. Sanders's bill will not pass this Congress. But the polling suggests the question is no longer whether the public gets a claim on AI's upside, only what form the claim takes. That is a meaningful shift in the Overton window. The industry spent years arguing about whether AI would take jobs, and voters have quietly moved on to arguing about the bill.

Should AI companies be 'forced' to give half their stock to the public? Most Americans say yes

Companies that build AI are changing the way Americans live, and most Americans want to share in the wealth. According to a new national survey of 1,690 adults from research firm Verasight, 69% said they support "forcing" AI firms to transfer half their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund that would, in theory, pour AI profits back into the economy and even provide direct payments to Americans. The poll comes after Elon Musk's space and AI company, SpaceX, just pulled off the largest-ever initial public offering, and as AI giants like Anthropic and OpenAI have been planning IPOs of their own. Likewise, tech giants that are already publicly traded -- like Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet -- have made major AI-forward expenditures and seen their stocks rise as a result. Americans also broadly want more guardrails for AI companies. Per the survey, 89% say they support making it a requirement for AI companies to disclose the results of all internal safety testing to the public, and 81% said they support giving the federal government the authority to block AI systems that are deemed unsafe.