American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund Act
Sponsored By: Senator Sanders, Bernard [I-VT]
Introduced
Summary
An excise tax on systemically important AI companies would force the biggest AI firms to pay largely in newly issued equity and place those shares into a public American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund. The fund would make annual distributions to support health care, education, housing, and a healthy environment and be overseen by an independent commission.
Show full summary
- Families and households: The Fund would distribute 5 percent of its average market value each year to provide direct payments for health care, education, housing, and environmental goals as Congress directs.
- Large AI firms and investors: A new excise tax would apply to companies with more than $200 million in AI-related gross receipts and must be paid so the Treasury holds 50 percent of outstanding equity after payment. Firms would also face extra tax rules on newly issued equity and limits that force structural separation from non-AI businesses.
- Governance and markets: An Independent Commission for Democratic AI of seven commissioners would manage Fund assets, vote Fund-held shares, place representatives on company boards, promote worker welfare and fair competition, ban commissioners from holding affected company equity, and publish quarterly vote disclosures and annual machine-readable reports.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 4 costs, 1 mixed.
American AI sovereign wealth fund
This bill would create an American A.I. Sovereign Wealth Fund to hold equity taken as tax and any income from it. A seven-member independent commission would manage the Fund and exercise voting rights in covered firms. Each year Congress could appropriate an amount equal to 5% of the Fund's average market value, minus admin costs, to provide direct payments or support living standards. The Fund could not be used to bail out applicable AI companies and could not force sales of Fund equity to make distributions.
Forced structural separation for AI firms
This bill would require applicable AI companies to reorganize so they only do AI trades or businesses. Covered firms could not hold or finance non-AI businesses, be held by non-AI owners, share officers or directors with non-AI firms, or join joint ventures with non-AI entities. The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the rule and give existing firms 90 days after enactment to complete separation. New firms must separate within 90 days after they meet the definition.
New excise tax and 50% equity seizure
This bill would create a new excise tax on "applicable AI companies" with over $200 million in covered AI receipts. The tax would be paid by issuing new shares so the Treasury holds 50% of the company's outstanding equity immediately after payment. The bill would add a large accuracy-related addition (60 percent substitution) and a $1,000,000 flat failure-to-file addition for these tax returns. The tax would take effect for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, and Treasury may issue valuation and implementation rules.
New reporting for large AI purchases
This bill would require businesses that buy large amounts of AI data centers, AI computing infrastructure, AI services, or advanced robotics to file a new return. The return must list the seller and the aggregate purchase amount when annual purchases exceed the dollar threshold under section 448(c)(1). Purchasers must also give each seller a written statement with purchaser contact info and the total purchases from that seller. Failures to file or furnish would trigger existing information-reporting penalties.
Tighter inversion rules for AI deals
This bill would expand rules that treat some foreign companies as U.S. for tax purposes to limit inversion strategies. It would raise an ownership test to 80% in some surrogate-corporation cases and add an "inverted applicable AI company" test after acquisitions. The bill would also apply a 25% "significant domestic business activities" test for employees, pay, assets, or income to decide domestic treatment, with some exceptions and Treasury rulemaking authority. These changes would take effect 90 days after enactment.
New definitions for AI activities
This bill would define terms that decide who is covered by the rules. An "AI data center" can be a site with over 20 megawatts of power or that delivers 20 kilowatts to a server rack or uses liquid cooling. "AI computing infrastructure" would include chips, servers, networking, and storage used for large-scale AI work. "AI services" would be models trained or run above a large computing-power threshold (the bill references a high ops threshold and annual adjustment by Treasury and Commerce). "Advanced robotics" covers AI-driven commercial robots.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Sanders, Bernard [I-VT]
VT • I
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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