Khosla proposes government take 10% stake in public companies for AI wealth redistribution

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, has proposed that the U.S. government take a 10% stake in all public corporations and redistribute that wealth to the public as society prepares for artificial general intelligence. Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, Khosla argued this radical wealth redistribution mechanism would be necessary to maintain social cohesion as AI displaces jobs and creates a “hugely deflationary economy” by 2035.

What sparked the idea: Khosla’s proposal was inspired by President Trump’s recent decision for the U.S. government to purchase a 10% stake in Intel, a major semiconductor manufacturer.

• “When Trump bought 10% of Intel, I wondered if it wasn’t a good idea,” Khosla said onstage at Disrupt. “Take 10% of every corporation and put it in national pool for the people. That’s really interesting. Just take 10% of every public company.”

Why this matters: The proposal represents one of the most explicit endorsements of government ownership in private industry from a prominent Silicon Valley investor, highlighting growing concerns about AI’s societal impact.

• While AI leaders have explored universal basic income proposals in the past—most notably through OpenResearch’s extended study on cash payments backed by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO—it’s rare for a major venture capitalist to advocate for such direct government intervention.

The economic rationale: Khosla believes extreme measures will be necessary to share AI’s wealth as automation fundamentally reshapes the economy.

• “I’ll get critique for this idea,” Khosla acknowledged. “But you know, sharing the wealth of AI is a really, really big need to level the benefits to everybody … We won’t need to do it in 15 years, but we do have to take care of those people.”
• He predicts that “by 2035, we will have a hugely, hugely deflationary economy” driven by AI automation.

The jobs transformation: Khosla sees AI displacement as both a challenge requiring intervention and an opportunity for entrepreneurs.

• He noted there’s a startup opportunity in building AI for every profession, including accounting, medicine, chip design, auditing, marketing, and entertainment.
• Khosla argued that many current jobs—like mounting tires on assembly lines or farming—represent “servitude to survival” rather than meaningful work that humans should perform.

What they’re saying: Khosla framed the proposal as a temporary but necessary intervention during the AI transition period.

• “That’s servitude to survival,” he said about certain manual labor jobs that AI could eventually replace.