OpenAI Calls for Public Wealth Fund Backed by AI Companies

OpenAI has put forward a bold plan for the U.S. government to establish a Public Wealth Fund. The fund would give every American citizen a direct financial stake in the economic gains generated by artificial intelligence.

The 13-page policy paper, titled “Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age,” was released on April 6. It recommends that AI companies contribute to seed the fund. The document also suggests new taxes on automated labor, government pilots for a four-day workweek at full pay, and automatic safety-net programs triggered when job displacement reaches certain levels.

Analyst Shanaka Anslem Perera delivered a sharp critique on X. He wrote: “OpenAI is now proposing to design the redistribution architecture for the wealth its own technology will concentrate.”

He continued with direct questions: “Who writes the terms of the fund that OpenAI seeds? Who decides the tax rate on the robots that OpenAI builds?”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tried to temper expectations. He told Axios the document is “a starting point, not a prescription.”

The proposal landed on the same day Goldman Sachs published fresh data showing AI is already displacing a net 16,000 American jobs per month. Substitution effects are wiping out roughly 25,000 positions monthly, while augmentation is adding back only about 9,000.

OpenAI currently carries an $852 billion valuation and is preparing for a potential IPO after converting from nonprofit to for-profit status. The timing has fueled skepticism about the company’s motives.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has expressed a similar view on taxation. He has repeatedly advocated for a 3 percent “token tax” on AI model revenue, arguing that part of the windfall should support workers and communities affected by rapid technological change.

OpenAI Positions Itself as Architect of AI Redistribution

The OpenAI document states clearly: “Create a Public Wealth Fund that provides every citizen, including those not invested in financial markets, with a stake in AI-driven economic growth.”

Critics argue the proposal creates an obvious conflict of interest. The same companies expected to drive massive productivity gains and job displacement would also help shape how society redistributes the resulting wealth.

The paper arrives as AI infrastructure spending continues to surge, much of it financed through private credit and debt markets. Some observers see the document as an early attempt by leading AI labs to influence the regulatory and fiscal framework that will govern the next decade of technological development.

Chain Street’s Take

Long-term investors and institutions that allocate capital across cycles have watched this story play out many times. The builders of transformative technology rarely wait for governments to define the rules. They step forward with their own vision of how the benefits should be shared.

OpenAI’s proposal frames redistribution as a necessary partnership between industry and government. Yet when the firms positioned to capture the largest share of AI profits also help write the redistribution rules, experienced allocators pay close attention to governance details and incentive alignment.

For those who hold decentralized assets as a hedge against concentrated power, the message is clear. Scrutinize not just the headline promises, but who controls the mechanisms, who sets the contribution rates, and who ultimately decides how the gains are distributed. The fine print in these proposals often reveals more than the public rhetoric.