President Donald Trump confirmed on friday that is thinking about the US government entering into some kind of partnership with major AI companies, perhaps even taking a stake like it did with Intel. Trump will meet with leaders of artificial intelligence companies, possibly next week, to discuss details.
That’s all bad news for David Sacks, who wrote an extremely long tweet on Friday criticizing Bernie Sanders and his call for legislation that would allow the government to take a 50% stake in artificial intelligence companies. But Sacks might as well have been criticizing Donald Trump, apparently his former 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’s interested in the government taking stakes in giant AI companies like OpenAI or Anthropic: “There’s something very interesting about this, that it almost becomes a partnership with the American public. The American people can benefit from the success of… pic.twitter.com/Wcy5RbbJ78
—Aarón Rupar (@atrupar) June 5, 2026
NOTUS was the first to report On Thursday, OpenAI’s Sam Altman was speaking with Trump about the possibility of the government taking a stake in the AI company. It echoes what some on the left have considered, and Sacks focused on those people in his critique of the idea, not Trump.
“While I’m not a fan of socialism or arbitrary wealth confiscations, I can see why Bernie Sanders’ proposal (for the government to take a 50% stake in AI companies) resonates, even with many on the right,” Sacks wrote at the beginning of his tweet. Thursday.
Sacks, who previously served as Trump’s cryptocurrency 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. Sacks said he understood the fear of ordinary people, especially conservatives, but that buying stakes in artificial intelligence companies was not the solution.
“Dario (Amodei) and Sam (Altman) have begun to walk back their claims of massive job losses, but the damage to public trust has already been done, and now the chickens are coming home. I could almost support Sanders’ proposal as a tax on stupidity,” Sacks wrote.
While I am not a fan of socialism or arbitrary wealth confiscations, I can see why Bernie Sanders’ proposal (for the government to take a 50% stake in artificial intelligence companies) resonates, even with many on the right.
CEOs of leading AI labs have repeatedly told us that… https://t.co/CqWYYhkDhC
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) June 5, 2026
On Friday, the White House announced Trump would be trying to accelerate the adoption of AI models by the United States government when it comes to national security. But the Trump regime emphasized that it would not engage in any of the practices that worry many people. Specifically, the White House said it would not engage in “unauthorized or illegal surveillance activities.”
Obviously, this is a warning that means nothing, given the fact that the blank check FISA Court Renewals make virtually any kind of surveillance of Americans permissible, especially under the Trump White House’s interpretation of “legal.” But they are clearly aware of how scared everyone is.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to war with Anthropic over its refusal to remove guardrails that would allow Claude to be used for fully autonomous weapons and home surveillance. And it’s not a good sign that those two things are a deal breaker for the government. It certainly suggests that the US military wants to use AI for fully autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance.
Strangely enough, Hegseth seems to be losing his war against Anthropic, according to Reuters reported this week that the dispute between the government and the AI company “shows signs of easing.” And if Trump decides to take a stake in AI, potentially seeing it as a way to distribute stimulus checks before the midterm elections, that would mean Anthropic is simply no longer someone the Pentagon can be at war with. Suddenly, all AI companies are an integral part of the government.
It remains to be seen whether Trump actually pulls the trigger on taking a stake in AI companies, and if he does, there’s no telling which companies will resist. But it appears that Hegseth and Sacks are losing their respective battles to even greater forces: Trump’s fickle loyalty and his desire to control every industry in America while doling out free money to his supporters.
