VC Vinod Khosla says the US government could take 10% stake in all public companies to soften the blow of AGI (techcrunch.com)

At TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, VC Vinod Khosla proposed a striking policy response to the economic upheaval he expects from AGI: the U.S. government should take a 10% stake in every public company and pool that equity to redistribute corporate wealth to citizens. He said the idea was inspired by the Biden/Trump-era purchase of 10% of Intel and framed it as a way to preserve social cohesion as AI drives massive productivity gains and job displacement. Khosla warned of a “hugely deflationary economy” by 2035 and urged radical measures — alongside more conventional safety nets like universal basic income explored by groups such as OpenResearch — to spread AI’s benefits more evenly. For the AI/ML community this is both a policy and incentive signal: large-scale redistribution or government equity could reshape funding flows, corporate governance, IP control, and labor markets. If implemented, it would alter startup economics (shifting exit expectations and public-market dynamics), change incentives around model deployment and commercialization, and heighten urgency for tools that automate professional work — from medicine to chip design — while raising regulatory and ethical questions about ownership, accountability, and who benefits from AI-driven productivity. Khosla’s pitch underscores that technical progress in AI will increasingly collide with macroeconomic policy, making coordination between researchers, companies, and policymakers essential.