From Musk's SpaceX Shares to Anthropic's $48B Fund: AI Companies Are Kicking Off UBI
marcvanderchijs · x · 2026-10-21
The author argues UBI is beginning to emerge from the companies building AI itself:
- Elon Musk pledged one SpaceX share to every American child next year — about 73 million kids, roughly $10.5 billion — calling it "the first of many."
- Anthropic committed 5% of its shares ($48 billion) to a Public Benefit Fund that can grow toward 20%, able to donate to nonprofits or pay populations directly, plus $200 million to study AI's impact on jobs.
- The US government has taken equity in 36 companies since mid-2025 ($20 billion, mostly chips and quantum; Intel gave up 10%), and Sam Altman has proposed a 5% OpenAI stake for a sovereign wealth fund paying Americans dividends.
No formal UBI yet, but the loop of "AI creates wealth, someone hands it back" has started. Good for the US; China will likely follow, Singapore and the UAE could manage it via sovereign funds — while Europe, as jobs start disappearing, isn't seriously thinking about this at all.
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