Trump Eyes AI Sovereign Wealth Fund as $7T Plan Stirs Divide

- Trump and VP Vance consider federal equity stakes in top AI firms, echoing $7 trillion Sanders proposal - Industry leaders and officials split as policy talks intensify following June Semafor report On June 21, 2026, Semafor reported that former President Donald Trump, backed by Vice President JD Vance, is seriously weighing a plan for the U.S. government to take ownership stakes in leading artificial intelligence companies, and that the government would potentially do this by creating a sovereign wealth fund. The proposal’s timing follows Senator Bernie Sanders’ $7 trillion federal fund bill, which would impose a 50% one-time equity tax on top AI companies and funnel stock into a national fund to pay annual dividends to Americans. According to Semafor on June 21, 2026, JD Vance publicly confirmed Trump’s interest in this move and described it as a marked shift from traditional Republican orthodoxy, while saying it aligns in principle with the Sanders initiative. As a result, the proposal immediately set off fierce debate in tech and political circles. On June 21, 2026, Semafor reported that industry figures such as Elon Musk argued on X (formerly Twitter) that direct payments would be far simpler than creating a fund, while Mark Cuban questioned the model’s practicality and oversight. Meanwhile, leaders at Microsoft and Meta dismissed the idea outright, according to the same report. According to Semafor on June 21, 2026, deep division has also emerged within the Trump administration itself, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent supports distributing AI equity via individual “Trump Accounts,” while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick favors a sovereign wealth fund approach. However, no final decision has been made, and a high-profile industry summit still lies ahead. Therefore, the debate over how to distribute AI-generated wealth—and whether the government should intervene at all—has moved to the center of Washington and Silicon Valley’s agenda. Both the political and private sector reactions underscore the high stakes and unresolved future of federal AI policy as of late June 2026.