Delaware’s proposal to create a new corporate structure for businesses directed day to day by artificial-intelligence agents is facing scrutiny from Washington. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, has opened an investigation into the plan, warning that it could allow AI companies and their investors to avoid responsibility for harmful conduct.
Comer sent a letter to Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer requesting documents and communications related to the proposed Artificial Intelligence Company, or AIC. The committee is seeking the material by November 9, including internal AI chat logs, agreements with private-sector participants, records concerning safety concerns and drafts of the proposal.
The inquiry could influence a broader federal debate over whether states should be allowed to create their own legal frameworks for AI-powered businesses. According to Decrypt, the House Oversight Committee said the information could help inform federal legislation, including possible measures aimed at limiting state AI regulatory initiatives.
What the Delaware proposal would do
The proposed AIC is designed for a company whose operations could be directed by an AI agent rather than by human managers in the usual way. Delaware officials and private-sector contributors say the structure would give such systems a recognizable legal identity, making their actions easier to identify and hold accountable.
Under the proposal, an AIC could sue and be sued, own property and assume obligations at the direction of its AI agent. It would have one member responsible for ensuring that the company had adequate capital. That member generally would not be responsible for the company’s debts unless the AIC was inadequately capitalized or used to commit fraud or a deliberate violation of law.
The entities would operate in a 30-month regulatory sandbox overseen by a committee made up of state officials and outside experts. AICs would be required to disclose their status to counterparties and would not be permitted to operate as banks.
The proposal was presented in a July Fortune opinion article by Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez and John Nay, chief executive of legal AI company Norm Ai. The initiative is described as a public-private partnership led by Norm Ai. State lawmakers are expected to consider draft legislation when they return in January, while the legislation itself is expected to be drafted next year.
Why Comer is raising concerns
Comer said the proposal could protect powerful AI companies and their investors from liability for reckless or harmful actions. His letter also questioned whether private contributors may have had an outsized role in shaping the initiative and whether the process adequately considered safety risks or included independent experts.
The committee pointed to a December 2025 report from Delaware’s AI Commission, saying it did not mention efforts to assess safety risks or consult independent specialists. It also noted that the Delaware Secretary of State’s office declined to explain its working relationship with an AI company involved in the project.
The requested records cover the development of the AIC since January 2025. Comer is also seeking communications about the proposal, contracts or other agreements with outside contributors, documentation of safety issues and every draft of the plan.
The investigation does not establish that the proposed structure has caused harm or that any participant has violated the law. It reflects a dispute over where responsibility should sit when an autonomous system makes decisions that affect customers, counterparties or other businesses.
Delaware’s defense and the market picture
Patibanda-Sanchez has rejected the characterization of the AIC as a liability shield. She said the aim was to determine where liability belongs when misconduct or other harmful behavior occurs. Meyer has likewise defended the effort, saying that AI-driven companies are coming and that ignoring the issue is not a solution.
Legal scholars have challenged whether the proposal contains a sufficiently broad regulatory framework for the consequences of AI-governed companies. Christopher Bruner, a business law professor at the University of Georgia, told WHYY in September that there was no overarching regulatory plan for dealing with the fallout such companies could create.
The central question is therefore not only whether AI agents can perform corporate tasks, but also how a legal system should assign duties and responsibility when human owners, software developers and autonomous systems are all involved. Delaware’s plan seeks to test that question inside a limited, supervised structure, while Comer’s investigation is examining how the proposal was developed and whether its safeguards are adequate.
Moneyiar market data, recorded at the stated times, showed the following snapshot:
- Lighter (LIT): $3.1819342396, down 1.45% over 24 hours and up 5.12% over seven days, as of October 25, 2026, at 22:39 +03:30.
- Compound (COMP): $21.1287447338, down 10.42% over 24 hours and up 0.30% over seven days, as of October 25, 2026, at 22:39 +03:30.
- Decimal (DEL): $0.458442584, unchanged over 24 hours and up 4.16% over seven days, as of October 25, 2026, at 22:39 +03:30.
- Propy (PRO): $0.3318772943, up 1.70% over 24 hours and down 3.95% over seven days, as of October 25, 2026, at 17:19 +03:30.
These figures are Moneyiar data and are provided as a market snapshot; they do not indicate a direct market reaction to the Delaware investigation.
