Welcome toAI Decoded,Fast Company‘s weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. I’m Mark Sullivan, a senior writer atFast Company, covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy.
Political action committees backed by artificial intelligence developers, Silicon Valley executives, and venture capital firms have poured tens of millions of dollars into competitive 2026 midterm elections. But across the thousands of television, streaming, and digital ads bought with that money, the words “artificial intelligence,” “algorithms,” and “tech policy” appear in almost none of them, a New York Timesinvestigation found.
Silicon Valley donors and corporate super PACs want to elect members of Congress who are likely to support industry-friendly AI regulation, or no regulation at all. But they must do so without further elevating AI as a campaign issue. The technology, and the data centers that support it, remain deeply unpopular with voters. Many Americans worry that AI will eliminate jobs, pose potentially existential risks, enable mass surveillance and media manipulation, and ultimately benefit only the wealthy elites who finance and control it. Wide majorities also oppose the construction of noisy, energy-hungry data centers in their communities. With AI policy now a political liability, advertisers are channeling their funds into conventional campaign ads focused on kitchen-table economic issues like inflation, local taxes, and small business support.
We’re talking about unprecedented sums of money
And we’re talking about unprecedented sums of money. A New York Times analysis of campaign finance data shows that political groups aligned with major AI developers like OpenAI and Anthropic, along with tech-focused venture capital firms, have directed between $55.7 million and $60 million into federal midterm campaign advertising and voter outreach. According to Public Citizen’s campaign finance tracking, the sector’s flagship super PAC, Leading the Future, raised $75.1 million this cycle, roughly two-thirds of it from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Last year, OpenAI’s cofounder and president, Greg Brockman, and his wife, Anna, contributed $50 million in personal funds, splitting the money between Leading the Future and the primary Trump-aligned super PAC, MAGA Inc.
Silicon Valley’s super PAC money also doesn’t buy as much advertising as ordinary campaign cash. Federal Communications Commission rules require broadcast stations to charge super PACs undiscounted market rates, while granting candidate campaigns statutory “lowest unit rate” discounts. Because outside groups can pay up to five times as much per ad slot as candidate campaigns, tech-backed PACs are concentrating their media buys on broad, high-resonance economic messaging rather than risking millions of dollars on a topic that triggers immediate public resistance.
Under the Trump administration’s arrangement with Big AI, AI developers and infrastructure companies shower the president with cash and praise, while Trump does everything in his power to keep AI regulation voluntary, nonbinding, or nonexistent. Late last month, for example, the administration brought tech titans to Washington for a luncheon and ceremonial signing of a voluntary safety pact asking advanced AI labs to follow safety protocols and establish internal teams to monitor their own progress.
