--- title: "Bernie Sanders Calls for Breakup of OpenAI" description: "Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is calling on the government to break up OpenAI in an effort to stop the firm from wiping out jobs." date: "2025-10-27" modified: "2025-10-27" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/bernie-sanders-breakup-openai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Future Society" - "OpenAI" --- # Bernie Sanders Calls for Breakup of OpenAI ![Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is calling on the government to break up OpenAI in an effort to stop the firm from wiping out jobs.]() *Joe Maher/Getty Images For Fane* Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is publicly calling on the government to break up ChatGPT maker OpenAI. When [*Axios* asked him]() whether the Sam Altman-led company should be broken up, he responded with "I do." "We need to take a deep breath and understand it’s like a meteor coming," he told the publication in an [interview last week](). "We’ve got to be prepared to deal with all of its complexity." To be clear, the idea is a serious long shot. While president Donald Trump ran on the promise of breaking up big tech, major companies spent millions on currying favor with him — including [donations]() for his latest White House ballroom project — with varying levels of success. Trump has also embraced AI fullheartedly during his second term, proudly announcing a [massive $500 billion AI infrastructure project](), dubbed Stargate, soon after taking office. The initiative involves OpenAI, among other entities. Whether OpenAI is an anti-competitive monopoly in need of breaking up remains a [point of contention](). Plenty of alternatives to its AI models exist, including Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude. In a statement to *Axios*, OpenAI's head of policy communications, Liz Bourgeois, argued that the company is "building in a field shaped for decades by a few large technology companies with deep resources and structural advantages." "Our growth reflects something simple: People find what we're building useful," she added. "This is what healthy competition looks like in the US — offering better choices." Others have called for regulatory intervention following concerns of a growing AI bubble, which could [leave the US economy in ruins]() in case it were to burst. "The first step to a healthier market is to break up companies that are vertically integrated, so that platforms don’t compete with their customers," Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator director of AI and technology policy Asad Ramzanali [wrote in a recent piece for *TIME*](). Ramzanali pointed at AI chipmaker Nvidia's [eyebrow-raising $100 billion investment]() in OpenAI, a "circular" deal that fueled fears over a looming AI bubble. "Chips must be independent from clouds, and clouds must be independent from AI models," he wrote. "Those models should compete on merit, not on whether they’re tethered to a trillion-dollar sponsor." Besides calling for the breakup of OpenAI, Sanders argued during last week's interview that AI could have an "enormous transformational impact" while also potentially causing "massive" job losses. "I want to see small businesses develop," he added. "I want to see creativity out there in the economy. Ain’t going to do any good for the younger people if the entry level jobs are taken over by AI." The senator also said he's concerned about "how we relate to each other as human beings," while taking direct aim at AI startup Friend, which [made headlines for its controversial wearable]() that's designed to act as a companion. The company's New York [subway ad campaign drew major backlash]() and ignited a heated discussion surrounding the role of AI in our daily lives. The news comes after Sanders [shared a report earlier this month]() about the impact AI could have on jobs over the next decade. "AI and automation could destroy nearly 100 million US jobs in a decade," the [report]() reads, noting that the "economic gains" in AI "have gone almost exclusively to those at the top." In response, Sanders called for a "robot tax" to be levied against large corporations to distribute to workers whose lives are upended by technological automation, a radical solution that will likely draw plenty of skepticism. For one, the [vast majority of companies are currently struggling]() to generate revenue using AI. In short, Sanders is making no secret about his disdain for the AI industry's disregard for working-class people. In a [separate interview with *Vanity Fair*]() last week, Bernie took aim at Trump's personal embrace of AI. "Trump is taking this country in a whole new direction," he said. "This is a guy who puts up an AI image of him in an airplane defecating on American cities — not quite the image of the president of the United States that I was educated to respect when I was in the fourth grade," Sanders added, referring to a [controversial AI-generated video]() Trump posted on social media, depicting him releasing feces on protesters. **More on Bernie Sanders:** [*Bernie Sanders Has a Fascinating Idea About How to Prevent AI From Wiping Out the Economy*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()