Gavin Newsom Proposes AI Equity Fund with Only a Few Details
The California Democrat said Americans should ‘own a piece of the future'
WASHINGTON, July 2, 2026 – California Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, is calling for a national public equity fund that would give every American a stake in the wealth created by artificial intelligence, outlining the proposal in a June 26 Substack essay.
Newsom said the country is entering a new economic era in which automation could generate enormous gains, and he argued those gains must be broadly shared. His plan would create a federal fund that takes a major ownership position in the AI economy and uses revenues to support workers displaced by automation.
“We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy. Simply, as artificial intelligence reshapes the country, every American should own a piece of the future it builds,” Newsom said.
Newsom said the fund could have a broad mission.
“Part of this fund could provide a real transition for the laid-off factory worker in Ohio or the 25-year-old coder in San Francisco who sent out a thousand resumes and got zero callbacks. This could include significant severance and portable benefits while we support them through the transition and into new jobs with programs like enhanced employment insurance,” he said.
Newsom did not explain how the fund would get its money, unlike a similar plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has proposed creating a sovereign wealth fund with AI companies’ stock.
Sanders’ plan, which he proposed in a June 1 New York Times op-ed, would give the U.S. government a 50 percent stake in large AI companies such as OpenAI or Anthropic.
