Four political committees did the real spending behind this year's fight over AI rules. Together they filed more than $70 million in disbursements with the Federal Election Commission. Their most recent reports run through October1. A New York Times count, published Oct. 2, put the industry's ad spending lower, at $55.7 million. $52.6 million of that went to safe seats5.
The two tallies measure different things. Both agree on the pattern. The biggest checks went to primaries the industry's favored candidates were already winning. Few touched the general-election races that will decide who writes next year's AI rules.
Four Committees Carry the Money
Leading the Future launched in August 2025 with pledges above $100 million8. OpenAI President Greg Brockman supplied most of the cash. His wife Anna and venture investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz added the rest. The group runs two spending arms: Think Big for Democratic primaries, American Mission for Republican ones.
Think Big disbursed $23.1 million through Oct. 14, more than any other single committee1. American Mission spent $19.1 million over the same stretch2. Both totals include staff, consultants and production vendors, beyond pure airtime.
Anthropic answered with Public First Action, funded by at least $20 million from the company itself68. Chief executive Dario Amodei gave $1 million more of his own money in May10. Public First runs Jobs and Democracy PAC for Democrats and Defending Our Values for Republicans.
Jobs and Democracy disbursed $20.1 million through Sept. 303. Defending Our Values spent $7.8 million over the same period4. Add the four committees up, and the total tops $70 million. That is the real scale of this fight.
Think Big Spends $23.1 Million, Most of Any AI Super PAC
Disbursements the four AI industry spending committees reported to the Federal Election Commission, through their most recent 2026 filings
Each bar is one committee's total disbursements. Think Big and American Mission answer to Leading the Future; Jobs and Democracy PAC and Defending Our Values answer to Public First Action.
Think Big and American Mission report through Oct. 14, 2026; Jobs and Democracy PAC and Defending Our Values report through Sept. 30, 2026, so part of the gap is a reporting-date gap.
Sources: Federal Election Commission [1]; Federal Election Commission [2]; Federal Election Commission [3]; Federal Election Commission [4]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Think Big | $23.1M |
| Jobs and Democracy PAC | $20.1M |
| American Mission | $19.1M |
| Defending Our Values | $7.8M |
The Times Counted Less Than the Filings Show
Reporters there reviewed 95 ads the four committees bought. Seven mentioned AI by name.
Data centers, the issue most likely to cost a lab goodwill with voters, stayed off the air in all 95 ads5. Total ad spending came to $55.7 million, concentrated in party primaries.
FEC filings run higher because they count more than ad buys. Each committee's own reports, filed directly with the commission, add up to roughly $70 million through their latest statements1234. That gap is overhead. A single story sits underneath both counts: primaries already locked, seats already favored, and a shared silence on AI itself.
Just 31 percent of Leading the Future's general-election spending reached a competitive race. That is the Intercept's count of the group's own filings6. The rest went where a primary, rather than November, decides the winner.
AI PACs Send $52.6 Million of $55.7 Million to Safe Seats
Where the New York Times traced AI industry PAC ad spending on the 2026 midterms, in millions of dollars
The flow splits the Times count into the two kinds of race its ads reached. The wide path runs to safe seats decided mostly in primaries, and the narrow path reaches races either party could still win in November.
Source: The New York Times [5]. Chart by Ryan Elliott Dennis.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Safe seats, mostly primaries | $52.6M |
| Competitive general races | $3.1M |
| Whole | $55.7M |
The Bores Primary Became the One Real Fight
Alex Bores sponsored New York's RAISE Act. The state law forces AI developers to disclose safety incidents within 72 hours6. Running for the House seat Representative Jerrold Nadler was leaving, Bores became Leading the Future's top target. Think Big spent at least $8 million trying to beat him9.
Public First Action spent almost $7 million defending him through Jobs and Democracy PAC9. The spending turned a crowded Manhattan primary into the sharpest AI fight of the cycle. Assemblymember Micah Lasher won the June 23 primary anyway, and Bores lost11.
Bores called it a win anyway. "Down to the wire, they were sweating," Bores told The Intercept, referring to Leading the Future. "I think people who have been in politics for a while will realize that their spending really served to elevate the issue of AI"6.
Brockman pulled a second planned $25 million donation to Leading the Future that same June. He called it "a distraction"7. Bores thanked him on X for it months later.
Alex Bores@AlexBoresI was @LeadingFutureAI's top target. I want to send a genuine thank you to @gdb for realizing how destructive they are and pulling out of providing additional funding.
Changing your mind is rare in politics, and I appreciate it.
I also have a genuine question: Greg, can you… https://t.co/Ja5bArDzYg
The Case For, and the Case Against
Jesse Hunt, a spokesperson for Leading the Future, downplayed the group's quieter fall. "We are committed to a multi-cycle effort that ensures lawmakers who understand the stakes and are prepared to lead have a seat at the table during this critical moment," he said7. The group still holds $23.8 million in cash. That is enough to keep funding candidates past November.
Shanna Ports, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, doubts the strategy was ever about this November. "There's no way of knowing what is motivating this arrangement — but I know there is backlash to AI," Ports said6. She pointed to new shell vendors both networks started using this fall. The vendors hide who gets paid for which ad.
Nate Blouin lived the pattern from the losing side. The Utah state senator lost his own primary. A rival candidate got a boost worth more than $1 million in AI-funded ads5.
"It's so cynical," Blouin said. "They're coming into races in safe seats that they know that they're going to be decided in the primaries, and they are spending millions of dollars on things that are unrelated to the core issue."
What to Do
A policy or legal team tracking AI regulation should pull the FEC filings for all four committees. Each network publicizes only its own headline total1234. Read the disbursement lines closely instead of the receipts alone. Cash on hand shows whether a group plans to spend again before the rules it is lobbying against take effect.
Names matter here. Watch where a company's name sits on a committee's donor list, apart from the super PAC's own name. Anthropic and OpenAI gave through PACs built to blur which donor funded which ad. A rival lab doing the same deserves the same scrutiny.
By the Numbers
- $70.1 million: combined disbursements the four spending committees reported to the FEC through their latest 2026 filings1234.
- The New York Times put total AI industry ad spending lower, at $55.7 million, in a count published Oct. 25.
- $52.6 million of that Times total traced to safe seats5.
- 95 ads: the Times reviewed from the four committees; seven named AI, and data centers went unmentioned throughout5.
- 31 percent: the share of Leading the Future's general-election spending that reached a competitive race, per the Intercept6.
- Leading the Future still held $23.8 million in cash as of its October filing7.
- Dario Amodei gave $1 million of his own money to Public First Action in May10.
- $26 million: total ad spending AdImpact tracked in the Bores-Lasher primary alone, from every donor11.
What to Watch
Watch the committees' post-election filings for whether the $23.8 million Leading the Future still holds moves into any runoff. Public First's own filings will show whether it keeps funding both parties' primaries at the same rate. Scrutiny of Anthropic's spending is only growing. A single general-election race this money flips would settle what the primaries left open.
Sources
- Federal Election Commission, "Think Big — committee overview," Oct. 14, 2026, https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00923417/?tab=spending
- Federal Election Commission, "American Mission — committee overview," Oct. 14, 2026, https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00916692/
- Federal Election Commission, "Jobs and Democracy PAC — committee overview," Sept. 30, 2026, https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00928374/
- Federal Election Commission, "Defending Our Values PAC — committee overview," Sept. 30, 2026, https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00928390/
- Catie Edmondson, Matt Zdun and Daniel Wood, "A.I. Groups Are Spending Millions to Influence the Midterms," The New York Times, Oct. 2, 2026, https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/artificial-intelligence-companies-midterm-spending-20261002.html
- Matt Sledge, "AI Tried to Buy the Midterms — Then the Lobby Learned Everyone Hates AI," The Intercept, Oct. 29, 2026, https://theintercept.com/2026/10/29/midterms-election-money-ai-super-pac/
- Emily Shugerman and Dustin Gardiner, "Losing donors and under fire, AI industry super PAC retreats," The San Francisco Standard, Oct. 31, 2026, https://sfstandard.com/2026/10/31/losing-donors-fire-ai-industry-super-pac-retreats/
- Ben Kamisar, "From the Politics Desk: Ads funded by AI groups aren't about AI," NBC News, Feb. 27, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ads-funded-ai-groups-arent-ai-politics-desk-rcna261041
- Ben Kamisar, "New York Democrat Micah Lasher wins House primary that drew big spending from AI groups," NBC News, June 23, 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/new-york-house-district-12-democrat-primary-winner-lasher-rcna351424
- Victoria Baeza Garcia, "Anthropic CEO donates $1 million to AI regulation advocate super PAC," Washington Examiner, July 16, 2026, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/4652035/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-donated-1-million-ai-regulation-super-pac/
- Alexa Herrera, "Assemblyman Micah Lasher wins crowded Democratic House primary in NY-12, CBS News projects," CBS New York, June 24, 2026, https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/micah-lasher-primary-election-results-12th-congressional-district-ny/
