Democrat Abdul El-Sayed wants Americans to own half of major AI developers, including Anthropic, which filed for an IPO Monday, and OpenAI. A new CNN poll shows him leading Michigan's Senate race by seven points.
The survey released Thursday puts El-Sayed ahead of Republican Mike Rogers, 49% to 42%, among 768 likely voters, with a 4.7-point margin of error.
On Polymarket, traders put El-Sayed's election chances near 72%, with about $3 million traded. His polling lead exceeds the 3.2-point average tracked by RealClearPolling.
Americans Would Own Half of AI Giants
El-Sayed backs Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) proposal to impose a one-time 50% stock tax on AI companies with more than $200 million in annual AI sales, paid in newly issued shares.
The shares would enter a public sovereign wealth fund that Sanders estimates could be worth $7 trillion. He says an annual payout equal to 5% of the fund's value could provide every American with more than $1,000.
"I want to actually take it a step further," El-Sayed said in June when asked about Sanders' public-ownership proposal.
His platform would give publicly appointed or elected directors a majority of board seats at frontier AI companies.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) owns about 24% of OpenAI. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) owns an estimated 9% of Anthropic, while Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) holds at least 6.6%, according to Bloomberg.
Under Sanders' proposal, Microsoft's stake in OpenAI would fall to about 12%. Google and Amazon would see their percentage ownership in Anthropic halved too.
El-Sayed's expanded October plan also seeks to pause frontier AI development and new data centers until safety standards are established. Rogers separately supports a one-year moratorium on new Michigan data centers.
University of Michigan professor Elizabeth Anderson told PolitiFact the mandatory equity transfer "sounds like outright expropriation," questioning its constitutionality. Sanders' legislation has not passed Congress.
Anthropic Pledges 5%, El-Sayed Wants 50%
Anthropic announced October 18 that it would dedicate an initial 5% of its shares to a wholly owned public-benefit fund, subject to shareholder approval.
The fund could finance charitable grants or direct payments to specific populations. Unlike El-Sayed's proposal, Anthropic would retain control over the fund.
Anthropic plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. Its formal investor roadshow could begin as early as November 10, one week after Michigan voters choose their next senator.
