Comment by James Broughel

Altman’s choice of the Alaska Permanent Fund is no accident. Alaska created the fund in 1976 to turn a finite oil windfall into a lasting income stream. The fund now holds roughly $91 billion and has paid every eligible Alaskan a dividend every year since 1982, including a $1,000 payment last year. The oil will eventually run out. The fund can keep earning compounding returns. The AI boom has the character of an oil strike. Nobody knows how long today’s extraordinary valuations will last or how the industry will eventually consolidate. That uncertainty is a reason to take some of the upside now, not to wait. Moreover, because the equity would be contributed rather than purchased, taxpayers also face none of the usual risk of buying into a bubble at the top. If valuations fall, the public has lost nothing. If valuations rise, the public shares in the gain. With a payout rule similar to Alaska’s, which draws about 5 percent of fund value annually, OpenAI’s stake alone could support roughly $2 billion a year in distributions. If the same arrangement reached the other leading labs, the annual flow would be several times larger. Congress could use the money to reduce deficits, fund tax relief, or pay dividends directly to American households. Congress and the president should accept Altman’s offer, write careful rules around sovereign wealth fund governance, and create an institution that can outlast the current AI hype cycle. The AI industry is offering Americans equity in their own future. It would be a dereliction of duty to refuse.