2026-08-14 15:04:03

The US government should consider nationalising AI firms, according to a pair of technology experts.

Bruce Schneier, a security technologist who teaches at Harvard University, and Nathan E Sanders, a data scientist affiliated with the Berkman Klein Center of Harvard University, have suggested that some well-known AI companies be brought under government control if they fail to attract sustainable interest from Wall Street.

The academics wrote in the Guardian newspaper: “All of a sudden, the makers of ChatGPT and Claude face strong headwinds as they seek to generate the massive equity assets that once felt all but assured.

“In fact, evidence suggests the market itself could reassess that these companies offer nothing of financial value. In that case, perhaps we can return them both to their original purposes. If these AI companies should fail in the financial markets, the US should nationalise them and convert them into national labs operated under democratic control that preserve their benefit to the public interest.”

The pair observed that the US has a long history of embracing technology for the broader public good. And just because these companies may not prove to be profitable, they can still fulfil a utility.

They explained: “It’s not that OpenAI and Anthropic are not valuable as organizations. They have remarkably talented AI scientists and engineers that are continuously producing innovations driving a global mania for their offerings. These leading labs might not ever be profitable, but their products are doing a lot of good in the world.

“You may or may not be a user of or believer in their technology, but their staggering, ongoing usage growth suggests that an awful lot of people would be disappointed if the companies simply disappeared.”

The duo touted the idea that OpenAI, one of the best-known platforms, could be nationalised by the US government.

They said: “Perhaps OpenAI should be returned to its private non-profit roots, the legacy they fought so hard to change and which Anthropic’s founders spurned. Or possibly both could be reorganized as research centers at universities, returning to academia the scores of high-profile research faculty they have poached.

“But a better outcome for society would be to establish public ownership and operation of their product-oriented capabilities. Turn OpenAI and Anthropic into US government agencies producing AI as a public good.”

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