Big Tech and AI Firms Build $250M‑Plus PAC Network to Sway 2026 AI Policy Fights

Axios details how rival pro‑industry and AI‑safety camps have quietly built a dense web of super PACs and dark‑money nonprofits that have already amassed well over $250 million to influence U.S. elections and legislation on artificial intelligence. The pro‑AI development side is led by Leading the Future, a super PAC backed by OpenAI co‑founder Greg Brockman, venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC, and AI startup Perplexity, which raised $50.1 million last year and now claims more than $125 million to shape the 2026 midterms, plus affiliated PACs and a linked 501(c)(4) called Build American AI. On the other side, Anthropic has given $20 million—and nearly $50 million overall so far—to Public First Action, a bipartisan 501(c)(4) led by former Reps. Brad Carson and Chris Stewart that is building three partisan and bipartisan PAC offshoots to push AI safety, transparency and stronger oversight, with a fundraising target of $75 million. Meta has put $45 million into the American Technology Excellence Project to fight state‑level AI bills it views as onerous and is now seeding two candidate‑support PACs—Forge the Future and Making Our Tomorrow—with $65 million to back Republicans and Democrats, respectively, while also launching a California‑focused PAC. The article makes plain that these are not scattered donations but a coordinated influence ecosystem, with corporate money flowing through both disclosed and non‑disclosed channels to pre‑select which lawmakers and state bills live or die in the coming AI rules fight.