Sanders Pushes AI Wealth Fund, Data Center Halt
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- Bernie Sanders told WIRED on June 23 that no significant AI legislation has passed Congress, blaming members' fear of hundreds of millions in industry-funded attack ads and calling for fundamental campaign finance reform.
- Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation in March that would halt data center construction until safeguards are implemented, citing negative impacts on local environments and electric costs.
- The American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, announced by Sanders in June, would require AI companies of $200 million or more to direct half of their increased revenue and wealth to the public, with public representatives holding half of all board seats.
- Sanders argued AI is built on human knowledge and labor and that its financial gains should not flow solely to 'guys like Musk, and Bezos, and Zuckerberg' but to ordinary Americans.
- Sanders raised the stakes of inaction with a concrete example: 6 to 8 million people work as truck, cab, Uber, and Lyft drivers, while driverless 18-wheelers are already running on Texas roads.
- Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, became the most mainstream party member to publicly support an AI data center moratorium the day after the interview, as democratic socialists swept their elections.
Why it matters: Sanders is pairing two structurally different pressure points — a board-level public ownership stake and a construction pause — in a Congress where, by his account, zero significant AI bills exist, and where the industry can spend hundreds of millions in a single cycle to silence critics. Pallone's endorsement the morning after the interview suggests the data center moratorium is moving from protest-energy into the mainstream Democratic caucus.
