IPO

I follow the invoice, and it has taken an interesting tour: public universities and labs help develop the foundation, a private start-up packages the dream, and an IPO turns the founder paper-rich. The taxpayer, meanwhile, is seated in the lobby holding the original receipt and being told ownership is complicated. Fair enough—no single company follows this path in exactly the same way. But the accounting habit is familiar: public groundwork, private jackpot, socialized risk.

At the world’s most awkward shareholder meeting, the public would not demand every server or lab coat. It would ask why its contribution was classified as charity while private owners received the valuation. A proposed AI dividend would put that missing line item back on the bill: if public money helps create the upside, public institutions should have a claim on accountability and some share of the return. Public science should not automatically become private fortune with a larger public invoice attached.