TL;DR
Palantir’s Karp predicts full nationalization of AI within two years. He says Sanders’ 50% proposal will seem moderate. Trump, Sanders and Karp agree that change is coming.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp says full nationalization of AI companies is comingand that Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal for 50% public ownership will soon appear moderate. “In two years, they’re not going to think Bernie Sanders is a progressive.” Karp told CNBC on Wednesday. “They’re going to say, ‘Bernie Sanders, you only want 50%?’ What is this 50%?’”
Karp said he spent six months privately warning top AI executives about the threat. “TThe impulse is on the side of the people who want to nationalize them,” he said. He described himself as a “progressive with card” and argued that the most important political decisions in the country will depend on whether politicians understand AI.
The prediction lands in an increasingly populated political space. Sanders has outlined his American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would impose a flat 50% tax on the shares, not the profits, of companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI. Trump has said plans to meet with leaders of artificial intelligence companies to discuss some form of public ownership, calling it “association with the American public.“The two sides disagree on almost everything else.
“The question is not whether AI will change the world, but whether it will.“Sanders said in a video this month.”The question is who will own and control that future.” Trump said at the White House: “If we do that, the public will become very rich, the people of our country.“
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Not everyone in Trump’s orbit agrees. David Sacks, former White House cryptocurrency and AI czar, warned that Republicans who adopt Sanders’ position will regret it. “Conservatives are right to fear where all this will lead, but they should think more carefully about how the regulations they are now flirting with will be used against them the next time a Democratic administration is in power.” sacks wrote.
Karp framed the debate differently. “He said Americans are wondering what will happen to them when AI eliminates jobs.”and the answers are not all good or bad.“He predicted that the United States would need”retrain and reequip” and said it is better positioned to do so than Europe. He did not address how Palantir, which sells AI to governments and militaries, would be affected by nationalization.
The bipartisan convergence on public ownership of AI is notable. A year ago, the idea of the US government taking equity stakes in artificial intelligence companies would have been dismissed as fringe. Now, a socialist senator, a Republican president and the CEO of a defense contractor agree that it is likely. The disagreement concerns only how much and at what speed.
Whether any of this happens depends on legislation, which has not yet been introduced, and whether AI companies voluntarily offer actions, such as OpenAI has proposed through its concept of the Public Goods Fund. But Karp’s prediction is the most extreme version yet from a sitting CEO: not 10%, not 50%, but total nationalization, and within two years.
