Uncle Sam Considers Buying a Seat on the Titanic
9th June 2026
The US government is reportedly weighing whether to take a financial stake in AI companies, which looks a bit like negotiating for a seat on the Titanic.
Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic, the marquee brands in US AI, are profitable yet. While Anthropic may be nearer to that point if its accounting survives scrutiny, OpenAI’s $1.4 trillion in financial commitments over the next eight years have been interpreted as a red flag for investors.
This raises (at least) two questions: Should the US government be picking winners? And should the US government be picking losers?
Bernie Sanders is, of course, very happy with the government picking winners and losers—so long as they are Politically Correct winners and losers—but he’d avoid the whole problem by just stealing half of an AI company for the government rather than actually, you know, paying for it.l