Most Americans back public AI fund funded by company stock, survey says

A new Verasight survey found broad U.S. support for forcing AI companies to share more of their upside with the public. For everyday investors, the finding points to a political risk around artificial intelligence: as AI spending rises and layoffs spread through tech, voters may push for rules that change who benefits from the sector’s profits.

Verasight, a research firm, said its national poll of 1,690 adults was conducted in June and published earlier this month. The firm found that 69% of Americans support requiring AI companies to transfer 50% of their stock into a public sovereign wealth fund.

A sovereign wealth fund is a government-backed investment fund that owns assets on behalf of the public. In this case, the idea is that the public fund would hold equity, meaning ownership stakes, in AI companies. If those companies gained value, the fund could capture part of that increase for public use.

Benjamin Leff, Verasight’s chief executive, said the public appears to view AI sovereign funds as a way to send gains from the AI industry back to society more broadly.

Sanders has proposed a public stake in large AI firms

The survey follows legislation introduced in June by Sen. Bernie Sanders. His American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act would give the public a 50% stake in the largest AI companies in the U.S., according to Sanders’ office.

Sanders said in a statement last month that the bill would ensure the economic benefits of AI are used to improve people’s lives rather than further enriching the wealthiest people. He also said decisions about AI’s future should not be made privately in Silicon Valley by billionaires focused on power and profit.

The proposal comes as many workers are uneasy about job security. CNBC has tracked a rising number of technology layoffs in the U.S., while companies continue to increase capital spending tied to AI expansion.

Goldman Sachs has also warned that AI could disrupt a meaningful slice of the labor market. In a report published last month, Goldman Sachs Senior Global Economist Joseph Briggs estimated that more than 9% of the labor force, or about 15 million workers, could lose jobs during a 10-year AI transition period.

Briggs described the shift as the kind of automation and worker reallocation shock seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as well as during other periods of major technological change, according to Goldman Sachs. The bank’s report also said Briggs expects those job losses to be temporary because he believes AI will create many new roles over the long run even as it eliminates some existing ones.

Public funds could capture gains, but face trade-offs

Research firm Windfall Trust says sovereign wealth funds could play several roles in AI. They could finance expensive AI infrastructure, take stakes in AI businesses and direct a portion of AI-driven economic gains to the public treasury.

Windfall Trust also identified a conflict such funds would have to manage. A fund designed to maximize returns for citizens might find the strongest investment opportunity in a foreign AI company, while a fund designed to strengthen national AI capacity might prefer domestic investments. Those goals can point in different directions.

That tension helps explain why the polling matters for investors watching AI companies. The debate is no longer only about which firms build the best models or spend the most on data centers. It is also about whether governments should claim part of the value created by AI, especially if workers see the technology as a threat to their livelihoods.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.