Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is back pushing the idea that every American should receive a stake in his company — a kind of national dividend from artificial intelligence. At the same time, the US Treasury warns that AI could concentrate wealth and power in a few hands unless properly governed. Two signals — one utopian, the other alarmist — but they share a core truth: how we distribute AI’s benefits is the real political challenge of the decade.
For Europe and Italy, the stakes are double. First, even if the EU tried a similar mechanism (unlikely, given treaty constraints), our SMEs would see zero benefit. A small business turning over €500k from an online store or a local service firm has no time to wait for a Silicon Valley handout. Second, the Treasury’s warning echoes here too: without targeted regulation and public investment, AI widens existing gaps — between those who have data, compute power, and skills, and those who don’t.
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Our position is clear:
Altman’s plan is a clever distraction. Talk about wealth sharing makes us forget that OpenAI still lacks a sustainable business model and that real AI governance is left to Big Tech. We don’t trust promises of future riches while today they push for deregulation. Europe should look elsewhere: instead of chasing American dreams, it should build its own path — based on digital sovereignty, open public data, and AI investment for SMEs. At Meteora Web, we see every day Italian companies that could benefit from concrete AI tools (process automation, customer data analysis, virtual assistants) but have no access to local, secure, affordable solutions. That’s the real gap to fill.
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If you are an entrepreneur or a developer, the smart move is not waiting for handouts from above. It’s investing today in internal AI skills or partnering with those who can apply them to your field. Run an audit of repetitive tasks AI could automate. Ask: where am I losing time and money? Then look for European-made, GDPR-compliant tools that respect your data. The real dividend is the margin you recover tomorrow.
