This is all bad news for David Sachs, who wrote a very long tweet on Friday criticizing Bernie Sanders and his call for legislation that would allow the government to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies. But Sachs might also be criticizing Donald Trump, apparently his old boss, because Sanders’ plan sounds very similar to Trump’s, at least based on what little we know about it so far.
Trump says he is interested in seeing the government take equity stakes in giant AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic: “There’s something very interesting about it, where it almost becomes a partnership with the American public. The American people can benefit from its success… pic.twitter.com/Wcy5RbbJ78
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2026
NOTUS first reported Thursday that OpenAI’s Sam Altman is talking to Trump about the government taking a stake in the AI company. This echoes what some on the left have believed, and Sachs focused on those people, not Trump, in his criticism of this idea.
“While I’m not a fan of socialism or arbitrary confiscation of wealth, I can see why Bernie Sanders’ proposal (for the government to take a 50% stake in AI companies) applies to many people on the right, including many on the right,” Sachs wrote in the beginning of his tweet Thursday.
Sachs, who previously served as Trump’s crypto and AI czar, then suggested that AI companies have injected too much fear into the conversation about what this new technology could potentially do to the world. Sachs said he understands the fears of regular people, especially conservatives, but buying stakes in AI companies is not the solution.
“Dario [Amodei] and sam [Altman] It has begun to back down from its claims of massive job losses, but public trust has been damaged, and now the chickens are coming home to roost. “I could almost support Sanders’ proposal as a stupid tax,” Sachs wrote.
Although I’m not a fan of socialism or arbitrary confiscation of wealth, I can see why Bernie Sanders’ proposal (for the government to take a 50% stake in AI companies) is relevant, including to many on the right.
CEOs of leading AI labs have repeatedly told us that they… https://t.co/CqWYYhkDhC
– David Sacks (@DavidSacks) June 5, 2026
On Friday, the White House announced that Trump will try to accelerate the adoption of AI models by the US government as a matter of national security. But the Trump administration has insisted it will not engage in any of the practices that many are concerned about. Specifically, the White House said it would not engage in “unauthorized or unlawful surveillance activities.”
Obviously, this is a warning that makes no sense, given the fact that renewal of the blank-check FISA court allows any kind of surveillance on Americans, especially under the Trump White House’s “legal” interpretation. But they clearly know how nervous everyone is.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth battled with Anthropic over its refusal to drop guardrails that would allow the cloud to be used for fully autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. And it is not a good sign when these two things are deal-breakers for the government. This certainly suggests that the US military wants to use AI for fully autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance.
Strangely, Hegseth appears to be losing its battle against Anthropic, as Reuters reported this week that the dispute between the government and the AI company is “showing no signs of subsiding.” And if Trump decides to take a stake in AI — possibly seeing it as a way to distribute stimulus checks before the midterm elections — it would mean that Anthropic is not someone the Pentagon can afford to be at war with any longer. Suddenly, every AI company is an integral part of the government.
It remains to be seen whether Trump actually pulls the trigger on taking stakes in AI companies, and if he does, there’s no telling which companies might object. But it seems as if Hegseth and Sachs are losing their respective battles to even bigger forces: Trump’s fickle loyalty and his desire to control every industry in America while giving free money to his supporters.
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