69% of U.S. Workers Support "Half of AI Company Shares for the Public"… Growing Backing for Sovereign Wealth Fund

Verasight June Poll Results

Ongoing Job Insecurity... Microsoft to Cut 4,800 Jobs

Legislative Moves in U.S. Congress Led by Sanders

In the United States, the idea of a national “AI Sovereign Wealth Fund” in which the public collectively owns shares of artificial intelligence (AI) companies is reportedly gaining strong public support. As large-scale layoffs are taking place at major U.S. Big Tech firms and other companies due to advances in AI, the AI Sovereign Wealth Fund is being highlighted as an appropriate means to redistribute wealth generated by AI back to society.

According to U.S. business media outlet CNBC on July 12 (local time), a survey conducted by polling agency Verasight showed that 69% of respondents supported a measure requiring AI companies to transfer 50% of their shares to a public sovereign wealth fund. The poll was conducted on June 18 and 19 among 1,690 American adults. Benjamin Leff, CEO of Verasight, said, “Americans see the AI Sovereign Wealth Fund as a means to return wealth generated by the AI industry back to society.”

The strong public support for the AI Sovereign Wealth Fund is attributed to concerns about job insecurity. U.S. Big Tech firms are pouring vast amounts of capital into AI investments while simultaneously continuing to cut jobs. Microsoft recently announced plans to lay off a total of 4,800 employees, mainly in its sales, consulting, and Xbox gaming divisions. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also announced a plan to cut 10% of its total workforce this year, and Amazon decided to lay off 16,000 employees worldwide.

On Wall Street, analysts see changes in the labor market as reminiscent of the technological innovations of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Joseph Briggs, an economist at investment bank Goldman Sachs, said on a podcast on July 2, “We expect that 9% of workers, or about 15 million people, will be affected during the AI transition.” He added, however, that “about 85% of job growth over the past 80 years has been due to new jobs created by technological advancement,” and anticipated that new jobs would offset employment declines.

There are also legislative efforts in Congress to institutionalize the AI Sovereign Wealth Fund. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic U.S. Senator, introduced the “U.S. AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act” last month. The bill requires that 50% of shares in large U.S. AI companies with annual sales exceeding 200 million dollars (approximately 300 billion won) be collectively owned by the public, in order to distribute the economic benefits generated by AI to society as a whole. Senator Sanders argued, “The benefits of AI should be used to improve the lives of all citizens, not just a handful of billionaires.”

However, CNBC pointed out that there is considerable controversy surrounding this idea. In a report, UK research firm Windfall Trust noted, “A sovereign wealth fund could return profits to the public by investing in AI infrastructure and acquiring stakes in AI companies, but the goals of ensuring public benefit and strengthening national AI competitiveness may conflict.” The report pointed out that maximizing investment returns would favor investing in overseas AI companies, while the policy goal of boosting national AI competitiveness would require investing in domestic firms—resulting in a potential contradiction.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.