Global Dividend Funds
Global dividend funds would capture a share of AI-generated economic surplus through equity stakes, taxation, or voluntary commitments, then distribute returns as direct payments to individuals worldwide, grounding distribution in personhood rather than employment or nationality.
What it is:
A global dividend fund represents an unprecedented attempt to extend the logic of national dividend programs (like Alaska's Permanent Fund) to a global scale. The core mechanism involves accumulating ownership stakes in AI-driven economic activity and converting returns into universal payments that reach individuals regardless of where they live.
Unlike national redistribution schemes that depend on domestic political will and administrative capacity, a global fund would create direct claims for individuals against a supranational institution. This may be necessary since AI-driven displacement will likely be borderless; a worker in Bangladesh may lose their job to automation deployed by a company in California, with neither government having clear responsibility or capacity to provide transition support.
Who's working on It:
Windfall Trust
December 2025
Anna Yelizarova argues for a global institution that would "hold and grow AI-driven economic surplus, not in the name of any one country, but in service of humanity as a whole." She proposes that dividend-based wealth sharing is more robust and egalitarian than individual share ownership, which "risks reproducing inequality through unequal financial literacy and market exposure." Drawing on precedents including the Alaska Permanent Fund, Norway's Government Pension Fund, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' casino dividends, she argues that the global scale, while unprecedented, builds on proven mechanisms for converting collective wealth into individual entitlements.
Future of Life Institute, Simon Institute for Longterm Governance
July 2024
In partnership with the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance, FLI hosted a July 2024 workshop in Geneva exploring how a Global Windfall Trust: a “robust international institution that could capture and redistribute economic gains from AI, possibly in the form of universal basic assets”. Workshop participants explored how the trust could be funded, structured, and governed, identifying critical design challenges including: preventing companies from reinvesting profits to avoid thresholds, ensuring Global South participation in governance, maintaining the system's legitimacy if major powers (e.g., China) refuse to participate, and avoiding perverse incentives that might discourage work.
Real-world precedents:
Alaska's Permanent Fund has distributed annual dividends to all state residents since 1982, funded by oil revenues. In 2022, residents received $3,284 each.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians operates a casino dividend program that typically distributes at least $9,000 per year to all enrolled tribal members, funded by 50% of casino profits since 1996.
Macau's Wealth Partaking Scheme provides annual cash handouts to all residents (MOP 10,000 (~$1,250 USD) to permanent residents and MOP 6,000 (~$750 USD) to non-permanent residents in 2025) funded by gaming revenues and budget surpluses.
The critical gap is that no precedent exists for a fund operating at global scale with individual-level distribution across national boundaries.
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