--- title: "Most US Workers Now Back an AI Wealth Fund as Tech Layoffs…" canonical: "https://www.metaintro.com/blog/us-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs" language: "en" author: "drashtigarach" published: "2026-07-13T15:50:54.000Z" modified: "2026-07-13T17:07:32.713Z" --- [Back to Blog](/blog) [AI](/blog/tag/ai)[Layoffs](/blog/tag/layoffs)[Technology](/blog/tag/technology)[News](/blog/tag/news) # Most US Workers Now Back an AI Wealth Fund as Tech Layoffs Mount A new poll finds 69% of Americans back an AI sovereign wealth fund as tech layoffs mount and Goldman warns 15 million jobs could shift. What it means. [![Drashti Garach](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:40:40/q:72/plain/images/5719d740-e510-42bc-8017-e040d145f35f_1766029465094.png)Drashti Garach @DrashtiGarach](/blog/author/drashtigarach) [July 13, 2026](/blog/archive/2026/07)13 min read ![Most US Workers Now Back an AI Wealth Fund as Tech Layoffs Mount](https://cdn.metaintro.com/rs:fill:1200:675/q:78/plain/images/5415-1.png) [https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs](https://x.com/intent/tweet?text=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs)[http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs)[https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs&title=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs&title=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount)[mailto:?subject=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs](mailto:?subject=Most%20US%20Workers%20Now%20Back%20an%20AI%20Wealth%20Fund%20as%20Tech%20Layoffs%20Mount&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.metaintro.com%2Fblog%2Fus-workers-back-ai-wealth-fund-tech-layoffs) At [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), we watch how workers feel about AI because sentiment shapes policy, and policy shapes hiring. A new poll reported by [CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/12/majority-of-us-workers-support-ai-fund-amid-tech-layoffs-survey.html) shows that a majority of US employees now want to hold corporations more accountable through an AI sovereign wealth fund, driven by dissatisfaction over a growing number of tech layoffs despite higher overall corporate profits. In a national survey of 1,690 adults by research firm Verasight, 69% of Americans said they support forcing AI firms to transfer 50% of their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund. If you work in or near tech, that number is a measure of how deep the frustration over AI-driven job cuts has become. ## What does the new AI wealth fund poll actually say? The survey, carried out in June and published earlier this month, is blunt about public mood. Roughly seven in ten respondents backed the idea of compelling AI companies to give up half their equity to a fund that would distribute returns to the public. As Verasight's chief executive framed it, "In the eyes of the public, AI Sovereign funds are seen as a tool to distribute the gains from the AI industry back to broader society." That is a striking level of support for what would be a dramatic intervention in how private companies are owned. The context behind the number matters. Support is rising precisely because workers see a disconnect between soaring corporate profits and shrinking headcounts. Companies keep announcing strong earnings while cutting staff and pouring capital into AI, and that gap is what is fueling the appetite for a public claim on AI's upside. We have tracked this same tension in our coverage of [the 2026 tech layoff wave that is not over](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/2026-tech-layoff-wave-not-over-sentinelone-wix-job-cuts) and the broader [tally of tech layoffs tied to AI](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/2026-tech-layoffs-companies-cited-ai-tracker). ## Why are workers so frustrated with tech layoffs right now? The rising number of tech layoffs in the US have left many workers frustrated and worried over job security, even as corporations continue to ramp up capital expenditure for AI expansion. That combination, cutting people while spending heavily on the technology many blame for the cuts, is the emotional core of the story. When a worker loses a role at a profitable company that is simultaneously investing billions in automation, the fairness argument writes itself. This is not abstract grievance. It connects to real anxiety about job security that we have documented in reporting like [the AI job security blind spot facing tech workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-job-security-blind-spot-tech-workers-2026). Workers are not simply afraid of AI in the abstract. They are reacting to a pattern where the productivity gains from AI appear to flow to shareholders and executives while the risks land on employees, a dynamic that also shows up in our look at [how AI is displacing workers without college degrees](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displacing-workers-without-college-degrees). ## What is the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act? The poll landed alongside a concrete legislative push. In June, Senator Bernie Sanders proposed the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which, if passed, would give the public a 50% stake in the largest AI companies in the US. The bill is designed to convert public unease into a structural claim on the industry's future profits rather than a one-time tax or fine. The stated rationale is redistribution of AI's windfall. The legislation "would guarantee that the economic benefits generated by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us, not simply to make the richest people in the world even richer," according to the statement introducing it, which also warned that "the future of AI and the fate of humanity must not be decided behind closed doors in Silicon Valley by billionaires seeking to maximize their power and profit." Whether or not the bill advances, its existence signals that AI's labor-market effects are now squarely a political issue, a shift we anticipated in our reporting on [AI displaced workers and support programs](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displaced-workers-support-programs-2026). ## How many jobs could AI actually displace? The fear driving all of this rests on real forecasts. A Senior Global Economist at [Goldman Sachs](https://www.goldmansachs.com/) estimates that more than 9% of the labor force, or around 15 million workers, could lose their jobs during a 10-year AI transition period, according to a report the bank published last month. That is a large enough number to reshape entire occupations, not just individual firms. There is an important nuance in the same forecast. Goldman frames this as "the type of automation and reallocation shock that we saw in the late '90s and early 2000s and in other periods of significant technological change," but the bank believes these losses will prove temporary owing to its expectation that AI will create many new jobs over the long term even as it destroys existing ones. In other words, the disruption is expected to be real but transitional, a framing we explored in [why Goldman Sachs calls AI job fears overblown](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/goldman-sachs-ai-job-fears-overblown-2026-what-workers-should-believe) and in our deeper look at [the decade-long wage setback for AI-displaced workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displaced-workers-decade-wage-setback-goldman-sachs). That nuance echoes what operators inside the hiring market are seeing day to day. Lacey Kaelani, CEO of [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), told [People Managing People](https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/workforce-management/ai-layoffs/) that "AI is not completely eliminating roles, but instead restructuring roles and therefore slowing hiring for some jobs." ## Why is public support this high right now? A 69% level of support for what amounts to partial public ownership of private companies is unusually high, and the timing explains it. The idea is gaining traction not in the abstract but against a specific backdrop of layoffs paired with record profits and heavy AI spending. When workers watch a company report strong earnings, announce cuts, and simultaneously commit billions to the automation that many blame for those cuts, the sense of unfairness compounds. As Verasight's chief executive put it, the public increasingly sees these funds as "a tool to distribute the gains from the AI industry back to broader society." That sentiment is a lagging indicator of trust, and it has been building for a while. The frustration is less about AI as a technology and more about who is capturing its rewards. If the productivity gains from AI flowed visibly to workers through higher pay or shorter hours, the appetite for forcing companies to surrender equity would likely be far lower. Instead, the gains appear concentrated at the top, which is precisely the dynamic that makes redistributive proposals popular. We have traced this widening sense of insecurity across our reporting, including our coverage of [a global workforce survey on job security](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/adp-research-job-security-2026-global-workforce-survey), and the poll suggests it has now hardened into concrete policy preferences. ## What would 15 million displaced workers mean for the market? The scale of the Goldman Sachs estimate is worth sitting with. If more than 9% of the labor force, roughly 15 million workers, is displaced over a 10-year transition, the effect is not evenly distributed. Some occupations will barely notice while others are hollowed out, and the workers caught in the shrinking categories will face the hardest adjustment. Goldman itself compares the coming shift to "the type of automation and reallocation shock that we saw in the late '90s and early 2000s and in other periods of significant technological change," which is a useful reminder that the economy has absorbed disruptions of this kind before, though never painlessly. The bank's expectation that the losses will prove temporary rests on the belief that AI will create many new jobs over the long term even as it destroys existing ones. History broadly supports that pattern, but the word "temporary" hides a lot of individual hardship. A displacement that resolves over a decade is small comfort to a worker who loses a role in year two and cannot wait eight years for the new jobs to materialize. That gap between the macro forecast and the personal timeline is exactly why the policy debate has heated up, and why individual preparation matters more than waiting for the aggregate to work itself out. We laid out that preparation in detail in our [AI displacement survival playbook](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displacement-survival-playbook-2026). ## Could an AI sovereign wealth fund actually work? Sovereign wealth funds can play several roles in AI, which is part of why the idea has traction. According to research firm Windfall Trust, such funds can lead development of AI at a national level by funding capital-intensive AI infrastructure, take equity stakes in AI companies, and capture a share of AI-driven economic gains for the public treasury. That is a broad menu, and it is why the concept appeals to policymakers looking for durable ways to share the upside. The design is not simple, though. Windfall Trust warns of a real conflict, noting "there is also a tension between the financial mandate (maximize returns for citizens) and the strategic mandate (build national AI capacity, maintain influence over frontier systems), since these objectives can conflict when the best financial investment is a foreign AI company rather than a domestic one." Countries are already experimenting with the model, as we covered in [Canada's move to build a domestic sovereign wealth fund tied to jobs](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/canada-25b-sovereign-wealth-fund-domestic-jobs-2026). The debate is less about whether AI creates wealth and more about who ends up owning it. There is also a practical distance between a poll result and a working institution. Even if the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act were to pass, a fund of the kind Windfall Trust describes would take years to stand up, staff, and deploy, and it would still have to navigate the return-versus-strategy tension every step of the way. Forcing AI firms to transfer 50% of their stock, the specific mechanism 69% of poll respondents backed, would face immediate legal and political resistance from the companies affected. None of that means the idea is going nowhere, but it does mean workers should treat the fund as a long-horizon policy debate rather than a near-term backstop. The gains and the disruption from AI are arriving now, while any redistribution mechanism, if it comes at all, arrives later. ## What does this mean for your career? For workers, the practical lesson is not to wait for policy to save your paycheck. A sovereign wealth fund, if it ever passes, would take years to build and would not stop a layoff next quarter. The realistic move is to treat this moment as confirmation that AI exposure is now the central variable in career planning, and to position yourself on the side of the technology that is harder to automate. That means building skills that pair with AI rather than compete against it, and staying close to the parts of your field where human judgment still commands a premium. Concretely, three steps follow. First, audit your role honestly against the tasks AI is already doing well, and shift your time toward the work that survives that test, a process we lay out in our [AI displacement survival playbook](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displacement-survival-playbook-2026). Second, keep your search muscles warm even if you are employed, because the 15 million figure means reallocation, and reallocation rewards people who can move. Third, watch the policy fight without banking on it, since the outcome will shape hiring in AI-adjacent fields for years. The deeper point is that the AI wealth fund debate and your own job security are two different timelines that happen to share a cause. The public support captured in that 69% figure reflects a real and growing recognition that AI is reshaping who wins and who loses at work, and that recognition may eventually produce policy. But policy moves in years while layoffs move in quarters, so the worker who thrives is the one who prepares as if no fund is coming, even while hoping the broader debate lands somewhere fair. Treat the political story as important context and the personal preparation as urgent action, and do not confuse the two. At [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), we help you read these shifts early and find roles that are hiring on the right side of the AI transition. --- ## Related Articles - [The 2026 Tech Layoff Wave Is Not Over](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/2026-tech-layoff-wave-not-over-sentinelone-wix-job-cuts) - [2026 Tech Layoffs and the Companies That Cited AI](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/2026-tech-layoffs-companies-cited-ai-tracker) - [The AI Job Security Blind Spot Facing Tech Workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-job-security-blind-spot-tech-workers-2026) - [How AI Is Displacing Workers Without College Degrees](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displacing-workers-without-college-degrees) - [AI Displaced Workers and Support Programs in 2026](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displaced-workers-support-programs-2026) - [Why Goldman Sachs Says AI Job Fears Are Overblown](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/goldman-sachs-ai-job-fears-overblown-2026-what-workers-should-believe) - [The Decade-Long Wage Setback for AI-Displaced Workers](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displaced-workers-decade-wage-setback-goldman-sachs) - [Canada's $25B Sovereign Wealth Fund and Domestic Jobs](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/canada-25b-sovereign-wealth-fund-domestic-jobs-2026) - [The AI Displacement Survival Playbook for 2026](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-displacement-survival-playbook-2026) - [AI, Jobs, and the Future of Work in 2026](https://www.metaintro.com/blog/ai-jobs-future-of-work-2026) --- ## People Also Asked ### Q: How many Americans support an AI sovereign wealth fund? A: A June 2026 Verasight poll of 1,690 adults found that 69% of Americans support forcing AI firms to transfer 50% of their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund, a reaction to mounting tech layoffs at highly profitable companies. ### Q: What is Bernie Sanders' AI wealth fund bill? A: Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the American AI Sovereign Wealth Fund Act in June 2026. If passed, it would give the public a 50% stake in the largest US AI companies, with the goal of directing AI's economic gains toward the broader public rather than only to top shareholders. ### Q: How many jobs could AI eliminate? A: Goldman Sachs estimates that more than 9% of the labor force, roughly 15 million workers, could lose their jobs during a 10-year AI transition. The bank expects these losses to be temporary, predicting AI will create new roles even as it eliminates others. Staying ahead of the market means tracking where AI is cutting jobs and where it is creating them. At [Metaintro](https://www.metaintro.com), we turn stories like the AI wealth fund debate into practical signals about which skills and roles are safest, then connect you to employers hiring on the right side of the shift. 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