The New Battlefield: AI Companies Turn to Campaign Finance
Artificial intelligence companies have spent the past two years competing over models, talent, and market share. Now they are competing over elections. The ai midterm rivalry has moved beyond research papers and product launches into the realm of super PACs, dark money groups, and public debate challenges. What started as a quiet build-up of political influence has turned into a visible fight between the industry’s biggest players.
Here is a weird sign of just how far this has come: AI super PACs have become political behemoths in their own right, and they are now weaponizing each other’s reputations as part of their strategy. On one side you have Leading the Future, a $100 million pro-AI super PAC backed by Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale, Andreessen Horowitz, and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman. On the other side you have Public First Action, a bipartisan super PAC network that received $20 million from Anthropic. And caught in the middle is Alex Bores, a New York Democrat congressional candidate who made AI regulation the centerpiece of his campaign.
This article breaks down five specific ways the ai midterm rivalry is reshaping campaign tactics, exposing legal loopholes, and forcing candidates to pick sides in a fight that barely existed two years ago.
1. Super PACs Become Proxy Fighters for Corporate Rivals
How Leading the Future Became OpenAI’s Political Arm
When Leading the Future launched last year, it looked like a standard super PAC. It was backed by several wealthy individuals and companies that shared broad pro-technology policy goals. It operated on both state and federal election levels. Nothing about it screamed “corporate rivalry.”
That changed quickly. Over time, LTF came to be viewed not as a vehicle for the general AI industry, but as a vehicle for OpenAI specifically. Several of its backers are investors in the frontier AI company, and its public posture aligned closely with OpenAI’s policy interests. Perception hardened into reputation, and reputation became a target.
The ai midterm rivalry became visible when Anthropic responded. By donating $20 million to Public First Action – a network backing Bores – Anthropic effectively created a counterweight to OpenAI’s political machine. Legally, super PACs cannot coordinate with candidates on ad buys or messaging. But nothing prevents companies from using super PACs to attack their corporate rivals. The candidate, in some ways, becomes incidental.
Bores himself acknowledged this dynamic explicitly. In press materials, he referred to LTF as “the Marc Andreessen-Greg Brockman-Joe Lonsdale-backed Leading the Future super PAC.” He was not just attacking a PAC. He was attacking the people behind it, and by extension, the company they represent.
What This Means for Voters
For the average voter, this proxy war creates confusion. A candidate who receives support from an Anthropic-backed PAC looks like a pro-regulation candidate. A candidate who receives support from an OpenAI-backed PAC looks like an accelerationist. But the money flowing into those PACs is corporate money, and the policy outcomes those companies want may not align perfectly with what voters expect.
The practical takeaway is simple: when you see a super PAC spending money on a candidate, look at who funds the PAC, not just which candidate it supports. The ai midterm rivalry is being fought through intermediaries, and the real players are often invisible to the public.
2. The Debate Challenge That Exposed the Weakness of Super PACs
Alex Bores Called Out Leading the Future – and They Went Silent
On Tuesday, Alex Bores challenged Leading the Future to an in-person, real-world debate. His campaign laid out specific conditions: LTF could pick the moderator, it could pick its own representative, but it had to commit to a debate before the June 23rd primary.
The likelihood of this debate actually taking place is slim to none. Leading the Future declined to comment about the debate challenge. But the fact that a congressional candidate even thought to challenge a super PAC to a debate is itself a remarkable sign of how far the ai midterm rivalry has escalated.
Super PACs are not designed to debate. They are designed to spend money on ads, mailers, and digital campaigns. They have no spokesperson, no platform, and no obligation to defend their positions in public. By challenging LTF directly, Bores exposed a fundamental weakness: for all their financial power, super PACs cannot defend themselves in real time.
Why the Debate Likely Won’t Happen
There are several reasons LTF would never accept this challenge. First, super PACs operate under strict non-coordination rules. Sending a representative to debate a candidate could be interpreted as coordination, which is illegal. Second, super PACs do not have a single coherent voice. They are coalitions of donors with overlapping but not identical interests. Picking one representative would alienate other backers. Third, debating is risky. A poor performance could damage the PAC’s reputation and, by extension, the reputation of the AI industry it represents.
Still, the challenge itself was a brilliant tactical move. It forced LTF to either participate and risk exposure, or decline and look weak. They chose silence, which in politics is often worse than a bad answer.
3. Dark Money Networks Enter the AI Political Arena
The Innovation Council Action and the Trump Factor
We have not even touched on the shadier side of campaign finance. Enter the Innovation Council Action, a pro-AI dark money nonprofit run by Taylor Budowich. ICA has a $100 million war chest, and its donors do not have to be disclosed. It received the blessing of David Sacks, the former White House special adviser on AI and crypto.
Dark money groups operate differently from super PACs. They can raise unlimited funds from anonymous sources, and they are not required to disclose their donors. This makes them attractive for donors who want influence without public scrutiny. The ai midterm rivalry is now being fought on this opaque battlefield as well.
ICA is expected to focus explicitly on promoting Trump’s AI agenda. That puts it in direct conflict with both LTF and Public First Action, depending on the race. The result is a three-way fight: OpenAI-aligned PACs, Anthropic-aligned PACs, and dark money groups aligned with the Trump administration’s AI priorities. All three are spending heavily, and all three are operating with minimal transparency.
Why Dark Money Matters for the Midterms
Dark money creates a special problem for voters. When a super PAC attacks a candidate, you can at least see who funded the attack. When a dark money group does the same thing, the source of the money remains hidden. Voters cannot evaluate whether the attack is credible or self-serving.
The ai midterm rivalry is accelerating the use of dark money because the stakes are so high. AI regulation will shape the industry for decades. Companies are willing to spend whatever it takes to ensure friendly politicians are in office, and they are willing to hide their involvement if necessary.
For candidates, the rise of dark money creates an uncomfortable dynamic. They cannot easily distance themselves from attacks launched on their behalf, because they do not know who is funding those attacks. And if they do know, they cannot say so without revealing information that may not be public.
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4. The “Doomerism” vs. Accelerationist Divide Becomes a Campaign Wedge
How Philosophical Differences Turned Into Attack Lines
The AI industry has always had a philosophical divide. On one side are the “doomers” – people who worry that unregulated AI development could lead to catastrophic outcomes. Anthropic is often associated with this camp, though the company’s actual positions are more nuanced. On the other side are the “accelerationists” – people who believe that faster AI development is better, and that regulation will only slow progress. OpenAI, despite its safety rhetoric, is often placed in this camp by its critics.
This divide has now become a campaign wedge. LTF has used the term “doomerism” to describe Public First Action and, by extension, Anthropic. Bores has used the term “accelerationist” to describe LTF and, by extension, OpenAI. The ai midterm rivalry is being fought with philosophical labels as much as with money.
The irony is that both labels are oversimplifications. Anthropic’s founders left OpenAI partly because they believed OpenAI was moving too fast and taking too many risks. But Anthropic itself is building frontier AI models and competing aggressively. OpenAI has a safety team and has publicly advocated for regulation. The reality is that both companies are more similar than different. But in politics, nuance dies quickly.
How Candidates Navigate This Divide
Candidates who want AI industry money must now pick a side. Supporting a pro-regulation stance might attract Anthropic-aligned PACs but repel OpenAI-aligned ones. Supporting an accelerationist stance might attract LTF but repel Public First Action. And taking no stance at all risks being left out of the funding altogether.
Bores has managed this divide skillfully. He coauthored the New York state RAISE Act, which focuses on AI regulation. That positions him clearly on the “doomer” side of the debate. But he has also been careful to distance himself from the specifics of Anthropic’s agenda. The beauty of non-coordination campaign finance laws is that he can plausibly claim independence from whatever Anthropic-funded political shenanigans happen on his behalf. Corporate money is corporate money, and he can accept it without endorsing everything the donor believes.
5. The Legal Loopholes That Make the Rivalry Possible
Citizens United and the Rise of Unlimited Political Spending
None of this ai midterm rivalry would be possible without the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which held that corporations have the right to free speech and that spending money on political advocacy is a form of protected speech. That ruling led directly to the creation of super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums as long as they do not coordinate directly with candidates.
The AI industry has taken full advantage of this legal framework. Leading the Future raised $100 million from a handful of wealthy donors and companies. Public First Action raised $20 million from a single corporate donor. Innovation Council Action raised another $100 million from anonymous sources. All of this is legal under current campaign finance law.
The non-coordination rule is the key legal fiction that makes everything work. Super PACs cannot tell candidates what to say, and candidates cannot tell super PACs what to do. But in practice, the alignment of interests is obvious. A super PAC funded by OpenAI’s investors will naturally support candidates who favor OpenAI’s policy agenda. A super PAC funded by Anthropic will naturally support candidates who favor Anthropic’s agenda. No direct coordination is needed when the incentives align perfectly on their own.
What Could Change After the Midterms
The ai midterm rivalry is likely to intensify after the current election cycle. If AI companies see that their spending produced favorable outcomes, they will spend even more next time. If they see that it did not, they may shift strategies. Either way, the genie is out of the bottle.
There is some discussion in Washington about reforming campaign finance laws to address the rise of super PACs and dark money. But meaningful reform is unlikely in the near term. The same ruling that made super PACs possible also made them constitutionally protected. Any attempt to restrict them would face a long and uncertain legal challenge.
For now, the practical reality is that AI companies will continue to use campaign finance vehicles to advance their interests, and candidates will continue to benefit from the spending. The ai midterm rivalry is not a temporary phenomenon. It is the new normal.
What This Means for the Future of AI Politics
The ai midterm rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI, played out through super PACs, dark money groups, and debate challenges, is a preview of what American politics will look like as AI becomes more central to the economy and society. The companies building the technology are now actively trying to shape the political environment in which they operate. They are spending millions, forming alliances, and attacking each other through proxies.
Candidates face a choice: accept the money and the baggage that comes with it, or refuse it and risk being outspent. Voters face a different challenge: figuring out who is really behind the ads they see and the messages they hear. The AI industry’s political machine is still young, but it is learning fast. By the next election cycle, it will be even more sophisticated, even better funded, and even harder to ignore.
