Political networks aligned with OpenAI and Anthropic have spent $55.7m on the 2026 US midterm elections so far, according to a tally published by the New York Times on 29 September. The more striking number is what the money bought: of the 95 ads the two networks have placed, none referenced data centres, and only some mentioned AI at all.
Who is spending
The two sides want opposite things. Leading the Future, backed by OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman along with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, wants fewer AI rules, and in particular wants to stop a patchwork of state laws. Public First, funded with at least $20m from Anthropic, argues for guardrails and transparency.
Both run affiliated committees aimed at Democratic and Republican primaries separately, which is how a single-issue network buys influence in both parties at once.
The ads are not about AI
The Times found the advertising leans on immigration enforcement, healthcare and party-coded messaging rather than on AI policy or data centres. That is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight: AI ranks low among voters’ stated priorities, and data centres have become locally unpopular in several of the states where they are being built.
The gap between the ads and the sponsors’ purpose is the story. A voter who sees one of these spots learns nothing about why the money was spent.
Where the money went
By the Times’ count, $52.6m of the $55.7m went to safe seats, almost entirely during primaries. Spending in a safe seat does not swing control of a chamber; it decides which member of the dominant party holds the seat, and therefore who sits on the committees that write technology law. It is a cheaper way to shape a legislature than contesting marginal races.
Build American AI, an affiliate of Leading the Future, has said it will run pro-data-centre advertising in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin. Those ads were not in the count.
Why it matters now
The fight these networks are funding is concrete. Six AI bills reached the California governor’s desk this week, Connecticut’s AI law takes effect today, and a federal preemption push has been circulating in Congress for a year. The industry’s position in that fight is being argued in primaries, largely without being argued in public.
What to watch
Whether Build American AI’s data-centre advertising actually runs in Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, and whether either network spends on a general-election race where AI policy is contested rather than assumed.
