This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Almost everyone in this thread seems to be assuming the US would pay for half the shares/equity of these companies.
That is not what is being proposed.
What is being proposed is that the US Govt simply seize half the shares/equity/board voting powers in these companies, without paying a cent for them.
It is a half-nationalization.
Not a half-bailout.
EDIT
I go into more detail and explain in this comment in this same thread:
Good clarification. I'm convinced we will end up bailing them out anyway. We should nationalize and operate as a public good if generative AI is that important to society.
I genuienly struggle to think of a kind of economic thing that better qualifies as a public utility.
Completely agree that this kind of technology, with such broad and immense ongoing, as well as potential implications, cannot be allowed to be directed by the whims of wealthy capitalist conmen rent seekers.
Nationalization doesn't change the fact that for example OpenAI plans to burn $100B in 2026 without any profit so taxpayers will inherit $50B debt just from 2026. Moreover it doesn't stop those companies for raising more debt from for example corporate bonds emission just by saying 50% of their capital is government owned. That would allow them to literally raise trillions.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/12/30/openais-cash-burn-will-be-one-of-the-big-bubble-questions-of-2026
https://archive.ph/8Ej9z
If OpenAI fails, and the government owns half of it...
The assets and power the government acquired for no monetary cost simply becomes zero.
The other part of simply seizing half the shares is that the government (presumably a number of ministers/officials in charge of the new sovereign wealth fund) now has half the voting power of the entire board.
That is a pretty direct way to wield influence as to the decisions the company can make, how the CEO can behave.
You want maybe the accounting to actually deprecate the GPUs they have or lease over a realistic timeframe, instead of a totally bullshit one?
Half of your shareholders now demand this.
C Suite refuse to comply?
Begin the process of firing them.
US Govt simply seize half the shares/equity/board voting powers in these companies, without paying a cent for them.
they still have half the liability.
What liability?
What does that even mean?
If I own a stock, a share of a company... what does that make me liable for, just owning the stock?
Do you think that like, if I own a stock, and the company gets sued or something... I personally have to help the company pay out the damages the company is liable for?
No that's not how stocks or the law works.
If the company's stock decreases in value after people hear about it having to pay out from a court case, then yeah the stock has less value now... but the government seized the stock, it got it for $0 dollars.
So there's no net loss.
50% might have been a fair cut if they actually asked for permission up front,but they didn't. Everything made by AI is fruit if the poison tree and should be something equal to public domain.
50% seems very low. They created these companies by scraping and pirating information.
50% means that they just need to fool a few people to get what they want. Imo it should be more like 90% public with a requirement that all services must be provided for free.
I forget how pro state people are on here sometimes. Is no one concerned what the fascist government will do with that stake?
The fascists currently own that stake anyway, what's the difference?
I mean they own way too large of a stake but a big portion is mutual funds currently. If we just transfers the fascists stake to the government it'd be a wash to me
americans arent being honest with themselves about how bad the state of their nation is in.
But our amazing big brother is gonna take care of us all! They only want what's best for billionaires! I mean Russia! Crap no best for America! That's the word!
ai doesn't make money so this is a bailout for a piece of junk. the amount of people here that think this will work out is fuckin incredible.
Nothing in the legislation reads as a bailout, the government would unilaterally take 50% stake and the associated voting power. The American public is no worse off if it doesn't turn a profit or gets liquidated.
The bailout would happen when the conservative vultures circle. "We can't let them fail, that would devalue the American portfolio (never mind that this bailout is 2x any value that could ever be gained back)"
check my math:
0.5 x 0 = 0
If this ever passed, I bet we’d see a pretty quick devaluation in these things.
I'm okay with that. The bubble is going to burst eventually.
Tax the tokens
Every country
Every token
100% AI Tax
What happens when they go bust?
Maybe we all get to enjoy a massive tax write off like a big business
But the government will actually own it, not you and me. So the government will write of its taxes to itself?
Just ban running them on a loss. Maybe even ban running anything at a loss in order to curb competition, etc.
Kurt Vonnegut's "Player piano" nailed it in 1952:
Automation makes factories more efficient, tax that efficiency and give it back to the displaced workers.
Of course, since then, we've been doing nothing but lowering corporate taxes...
I think that’s a traditional part of anti-monopoly laws, shame nobody enforces those anymore
Anti-monopoly laws have been problematic to enforce since their inception, because their targets are often as powerful as the government that might dare to regulate them.
Funny - bis Argument is : ai is built in human collective knowledge thus wie should participate in the profits and ... Give it all to americans
Dont get me wrong i like the sentiment - but seems like it comes down to - ai was built by THe collective knowledge of all humans - the profits should go to all americans
I mean however unlikely this law is to pass it would be outright impossible if the idea was to take 50% of AI profits and then somehow mail checks to every person on earth, even outside of the country doing the profit distribution
Other countries are free to do that for any LLMs developed in their own jurisdiction.
I wonder if this is some sneaky way to make sure they aren’t bailed out by the public when the crash happens. The companies will revolt against this. And then when they coming running for a bailout we can just say “well you didn’t want to be publicly owned”
To give the government a 50% stake. I know the government is the public in some sense, but still.
I see plenty of objections, many from people who probably know much more about AI and US law than myself, but if what I interpret is accurate I’m trying to find flaw with it, given what’s confronting us with AI and its management.
I don’t see anywhere where the US government would be buying or bailing anything out, at least not upfront anyway. There’s no doubt to me these companies have stolen much, so they owe the public back for that. There’s no doubt to me those that run these systems aren't working in the US public’s interest, so the question of whether regulating or offering public protections should happen isn’t hard for me. That of course implies good governance, not what currently exists, which is a problem.
As I said I might be missing a lot, not being American or an AI user, but yeah aside from who is in charge currently I only see benefit here.
As I said I might be missing a lot, not being American or an AI user, but yeah aside from who is in charge currently I only see benefit here.
It hurts the profit margins by benefitting the public, so it will fail. A snowball has a better chance in Hell than this bill has to pass.
50% sounds fair
No.
100% is fair.
They stole every bit of what they used to build this shit sandwich.
