Majority of Americans want the government to own half of AI companies
Americans favor aggressive economic interventions when it comes to regulating AI.
Image by Cybernews.
- A June 2026 poll found 69% of Americans support government ownership of half of all AI company shares, marking a dramatic shift toward state intervention in the traditionally free-market US economy.
- Up to 89% of respondents want mandatory independent safety reviews and government power to block risky AI systems before they reach the public, signaling widespread distrust of corporate self-regulation.
- AI regulation is emerging as a key voting issue ahead of November 2026 midterm elections, driven by recent controversies including Anthropic's surveillance practices and forced government shutdowns of AI models.
- Despite support for regulation, 56% of Americans say they lack sufficient knowledge about AI to form informed opinions, highlighting a gap between public concern and understanding of the technology.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Despite being a perceived mecca of the free market and capitalism, the majority of the surveyed US public wants the government to heavily regulate local AI giants, sending a message to politicians ahead of this year's midterms.
Here's the message, relayed by Verasight, a nonpartisan survey research company, after polling 1,690 adults in June 2026.
The majority – 69% – of respondents support the idea that local AI companies should transfer 50% of their shares to the government.
Up to 89% want AI companies to publicly disclose safety testing for their most powerful AI systems, require that these companies have these systems reviewed by independent evaluators, and give the government the power to block an AI system if it's found to pose a risk.
As reported by Cybernews, former US presidential candidate and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders floated the idea of giving Americans a 50% ownership stake in major US AI companies through a sovereign wealth fund.
According to Verasight, the nationwide poll reveals deep public skepticism toward artificial intelligence firms, and the data “indicates that the American public favors aggressive economic interventions."
The survey also found that 30% of respondents trust the US government more than AI giants to accurately judge whether a model is safe for public deployment, versus 14% who trust "the AI company, Anthropic."
However, 56% of respondents said they're not sufficiently familiar with the situation to form an opinion.
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In either case, this year has seen plenty of Anthropic-related examples. Since January of this year, the company has been fighting with the US Department of Defense over the use of Anthropic's AI models for military purposes and mass domestic surveillance.
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Meanwhile, in June, the government forced the company to disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models and suspend foreign access to them, including access for foreign-national employees. Also, in a more recent example, as reported by Cybernews, Anthropic was caught spying on its Chinese users.
Therefore, as the midterm elections approach in the US this November, AI is set to become an important voting issue, as both users and regulators try to catch up with this rapidly expanding technology.
