Palantir CEO Alex Karp says Sen. Bernie Sanders won’t be seen as sufficiently progressive in two years because he wants the U.S. government to take just a 50% ownership stake in the country’s largest AI companies. Karp told CNBC on Wednesday that full nationalization is likely coming—and will become the mainstream position of the left—because the AI revolution is going to radically change the world.
“You know how people don’t think I’m progressive? In two years, they’re not going to think Bernie Sanders is progressive. They’re going to be like ‘Bernie Sanders, you only want 50%? What is this 50%?’” said Karp.
Karp referred to himself during the interview as a “card-carrying progressive,” something that interviewer Sara Eisen questioned, given his alignment with President Donald Trump and dismissal of many progressive issues—from DEI to Israel’s war in Gaza.
“The question is not whether I’m progressive,” said Karp. “The question is whether some progressives are progressive. I am progressive. I want poor people to have better lifestyle, higher standard of living, all poor people.”
Karp said that the most important political decisions in the country will be driven by whether politicians understand AI. He also said that the American people are wondering what is going to happen to them when it comes to things like job losses, “and the answers aren’t all good or bad.” The Palantir CEO said that Americans would have to “retrain and retool” and he sees that as something the U.S. is better positioned to do than folks in Europe.
There has been a push in recent months by people like Bernie Sanders, an independent in Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, to get some kind of public ownership of the AI companies. The idea is that AI will cause such massive societal upheaval, that the only solution will likely be a universal basic income for people who are thrown out of work.
“The question is not whether AI will change the world—it will,” Sen. Sanders said in a video posted to his social media earlier this month. “The question is who will own and control that future.”
Sanders has been joined recently by some right-wing folks who like the idea, including President Trump, though his motivations may be different. Trump was asked at the White House on Tuesday about his comments from last week saying that he would be talking with the AI companies about some form of ownership stake or nationalization.
“I’m gonna have meetings with the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly and we’re talking about giving back something to the public,” said Trump. “And if we do that, the public will become very rich—the people in our country. Because that’s the kind of money we’re talking about.”
Trump continued by saying that he’ll thinks the AI companies “will do that,” and it will be “very popular.” It’s unclear when Trump will actually meet with executives from the major AI companies, nor whether a company like Anthropic will be adversarial after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s efforts to blacklist the company. Those efforts have reportedly fizzled in many ways since Claude is in such high demand from the U.S. military and intelligence community leaders who believe it’s more powerful than other large language models.
Trump has previously floated the idea of some kind of “refund” check doled out thanks to his tariffs, though it’s unclear if he’ll be able to get an AI “stimulus” check to Americans before the midterm elections in November, when it would be most politically advantageous for Republicans.
But not all Trump supporters are on board with the idea that nationalization of AI (or at least partial nationalization) is a good idea. David Sacks, Trump’s former AI and crypto czar, came out against the idea last week, though he didn’t criticize Trump directly. Sacks warned that Republicans who adopt the Sanders position on AI nationalization will regret it later.
“Conservatives are right to fear where this is all headed but ought to think more carefully about how regulations they are flirting with now (that are widely celebrated among those with a long history of lust for Big Government) will be used against them the next time a Democrat administration is in power,” Sacks wrote.
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