Senate

Warren proposes taxing AI companies so ‘winnings’ ‘benefit all Americans’

by Miranda Nazzaro – 05/27/26 4:55 PM ET

The Hill’s Headlines | PM – Wednesday May 27, 2026

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is calling for an overhaul of the U.S. tax code to tax artificial intelligence companies, arguing the gains from AI should “benefit all Americans.”

“Building an economy that works for all of us will require multiple policy responses. But it starts by acknowledging: it’s time to tax AI and invest in people,” Warren wrote in an op-ed published Wednesday in Time magazine.

“Taxing AI is one way we make sure the winnings from AI benefit all Americans, rather than channeling them only to the wealthy few,” she added.

Warren is proposing directly taxing AI companies, including AI data centers, writing, “A well-designed tax would focus on the companies that can afford it and scale with AI’s impact: the bigger the data center, the more they pay.”

The excise tax would be for the energy consumed by data centers, allowing families to recoup some of these costs as electricity costs “skyrocket,” the Massachusetts Democrat said. She also floated “even bigger and bolder proposals to tax AI,” including ideas that “sound radical today,” but she did not expand on specifics.

The progressive’s proposal comes as lawmakers struggle to pass most regulations and policy changes related to AI in the wake of fierce partisan and intraparty disagreements.

Stanford University released its annual AI Index Report last month, showing that AI experts and the U.S. public have drastically different views on AI’s societal impact, while nervousness on AI products increased slightly. 

Warren, who has long pushed for a federal wealth tax, argues AI has created dozens of tech billionaires, prompted layoffs in some sectors and contributed to higher utility bills. She reechoed her push for a wealth tax, naming AI leaders like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

“Policymakers undoubtedly need to regulate AI and protect against its worst-case harms, like cyber attacks, which could impact our financial system and national security,” Warren said. “We must also tackle the problem of AI’s accelerating demand for energy and ensure that families’ utility bills don’t skyrocket.”

She pointed to tax breaks companies receive for technology investments, calling it “effectively a tax penalty for hiring human beings and a tax break for buying equipment.”

Some technology companies have proposed wealth-related solutions, though most do not go as far. In a policy blueprint released last month, Altman recommended the creation of a public wealth fund to give every citizen a “stake in AI-driven economy growth” regardless of their current investments in financial markets.

He also called for taxes “related to automated labor,” given AI could reduce the tax base funding programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Social Security and Medicaid. 

Continue/Read Original Article: Elizabeth Warren’s plan to tax AI for public benefit