Buterin blasts ‘AI nationalism’ as Sanders seeks 50% stake

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized rising ‘AI nationalism’ on the same day Sen. Bernie Sanders unveiled a proposal to transfer 50% equity in OpenAI, Anthropic and other frontier AI labs into a federal sovereign wealth fund.

Sanders outlined the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which he plans to introduce within weeks. The proposal would impose a one-time equity tax on major frontier AI firms and place half of their shares into a government-controlled fund that would hold public equity, receive voting shares and seat government representatives on company boards.

Sanders argued generative AI systems are trained on the collective knowledge of humanity — code, art and conversation — and that the wealth they generate should benefit the public. He wrote, “Since A.I. is built on the collective knowledge of humanity, the wealth it generates must benefit humanity. Not just Mr. Musk, Mr. Altman, Dario Amodei and other moguls whose companies are positioned to dominate the industry.”

Buterin posted a reply on the social platform X that criticized what he described as a shift in frontier AI rhetoric away from global benefit toward national framing. He contrasted earlier promises that AI would “benefit all of humanity” with what he called a later aim to “benefit all of 4% of humanity.” He has previously written about AI risks and pushed back on zero-sum framings of a U.S.-China race.

Legal and policy experts reacted to Sanders’ proposal. Kevin Frazier, a law professor who studies AI policy, described the essay as a warning to an industry that has had limited formal public input and suggested stronger mechanisms for public participation. Industry representatives warned that aggressive intervention could reduce investment in AI development, while some progressives supported public ownership as a way to broaden the distribution of AI-related gains.

The firms named in Sanders’ plan have not issued public responses. Several of the frontier labs have reached private valuations ranging from hundreds of billions to over a trillion dollars, highlighting the scale of equity the proposal targets.

Sanders framed the fund as part of a broader effort to regulate AI and build on earlier legislative work, including an AI data center moratorium he co-sponsored with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Sanders stated the full text of the bill will be released soon.