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The United States is home to most of the world\u2019s leading AI companies \u2014 yet many Americans don\u2019t feel they share in the abundance. AI is fueling unprecedented growth and wealth creation. In the first half of 2026, tech-focused hedge funds returned 27% on average; the Nasdaq-100 rose about 20%. But many citizens don\u2019t own that innovation and so miss out on its profits. As AI scales, that gap is likely to widen, not close. There is a way for more Americans to share in the upside of AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How can more Americans benefit from our nation\u2019s ingenuity? Make more Americans owners. \u201cInnovation Accounts,\u201d modeled on Trump Accounts for newborns, would put seed money into a technology-stock index on behalf of adults, giving each of them a stake in America\u2019s technological engine.<\/p>\n
OpenAI has reportedly floated the idea of giving the government up to a 5% stake in the company and suggested other leading AI companies do the same. Both President Trump and progressive Democrats have floated public ownership stakes in AI companies, as Fortune<\/em> has reported. However, governments make poor stock-pickers. Better to let individuals own the upside directly. The math is simple. $1,000 invested in the Nasdaq-100 a decade ago \u2014 which has returned 21% annually \u2014 would be worth $5,727 more today. Seed \u2018innovation accounts\u2019 with $5,000, and that\u2019s $28,635 in gains.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is a precedent \u2014 this idea is an extension of one that is already law. Trump Accounts, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, give American children born from 2025 through 2028 a $1,000 government-funded stake in the stock market. Alaska has run a version of this for decades: its Permanent Fund invests a share of the state\u2019s oil wealth and pays nearly every resident, children included, an annual dividend from the earnings. A private-sector asset manager would invest the innovation accounts under government oversight, with participants able to cash out gains at specific intervals, potentially every couple of years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Investing in individual stocks carries risk, but a diversified technology index fund would give more Americans access to the upside of AI-driven productivity growth. Just 58% of American adults own stock, Gallup found in April, much of it held in retirement accounts. That means most people are exposed to AI\u2019s downsides \u2014 rising electricity costs, potential job disruption \u2014 without any claim on its upside. Innovation Accounts would close that gap. Giving Americans $1,000 or $5,000 invested in a technology index is a straightforward idea; The source and use of the funds will likely be of great debate. Federal or state governments could seed the accounts, but philanthropy offers a faster, deficit-neutral start. The beneficiaries of AI \u2013 founders, early employees, investors and the foundations at labs like OpenAI and Anthropic \u2013 are a natural source of capital for this idea given the meaningful liquidity around the corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n The hardest design question is eligibility. Opening $1,000 accounts for every American over 18 years old (when Trump accounts end) would cost roughly $270 billion. Limiting it to households with wealth under $500,000 \u2014 about 70% of Americans \u2014 cuts that to $190 billion. The program could also be targeted rather than universal \u2014 triggered by sector-specific unemployment spikes, income level, or geography, so the money flows first to the workers AI disrupts most. For example, an \u201cunemployment trigger\u201d could target those in highly impacted sectors: if unemployment in your sector (by NAICS code) runs 1.5x of the average unemployment level in your sector for the past 10 years, you qualify. Hopefully, other economists will offer even more elegant targeting solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n The broader idea of \u201cuniversal basic capital\u201d for everyone, not just those affected by AI, has drawn support from figures as varied as MIT economist David Autor, OpenAI\u2019s Sam Altman and Senator Bernie Sanders. The practical question is scope. A $5 billion pilot, plus administrative costs, could seed 1 million accounts at $5,000 each. If it works, the government or philanthropists could scale it over time.<\/p>\n An extra $6,000 or $29,000 in gains over a decade won\u2019t replace a lost job. But it gives people capital to retrain, start a business, or navigate whatever comes next \u2014 on their own terms. A philanthropic pilot could start compounding those returns today, without waiting on Congress. Of course, the Nasdaq-100 or a similar tech-heavy index, isn\u2019t guaranteed to deliver 21% returns each year for a decade going forward. But when it does deliver, more Americans can win. Rather than a direct cash transfer, this is investing in more Americans benefiting from our country\u2019s innovation prowess.<\/p>\n We are home to most of the world\u2019s leading AI labs and attract more private AI investment than any other country. Many other countries and even continents would kill to have this level of ingenuity on their shores. It\u2019s no accident America built the labs driving this AI revolution and their continued success is a common project. If Americans don\u2019t feel they\u2019re sharing in what the labs and other AI leaders create, the backlash will land on the innovators as much as anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n No one knows exactly what magnitude of job displacement AI will cause \u2014 we won\u2019t know until it arrives. But uncertainty isn\u2019t a reason to wait or do nothing. It is a reason to build a plan, fund it, and hope we never need it. As a country, we need the economic infrastructure to help Americans absorb these shocks, and Innovation Accounts would strengthen households\u2019 balance sheets in a time of significant disruption and abundance.<\/p>\n Ingenuity is central to the American story. So is sharing in its abundance. This proposal isn\u2019t partisan \u2014 it\u2019s patriotic.<\/p>\n The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of <\/em>Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Innovation #Accounts #potential #job #wipeout #Trump #Accounts #children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The United States is home to m… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[699,4390,2188,22,544,1766,357,10100],"class_list":["post-6985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-accounts","tag-children","tag-innovation","tag-investment","tag-job","tag-potential","tag-trump","tag-wipeout"],"yoast_head":"\n