Big AI Companies Are Secretly Spending Millions to Pick Your Next Congressman

Here's something wild: the AI industry is flooding the 2026 midterm elections with cash, but if you watched their ads, you'd never know it had anything to do with artificial intelligence.

Competing super PACs backed by AI companies are spending millions on the first primaries in Texas and North Carolina. But instead of talking about AI regulation (which is the actual reason they care about these races), the ads focus on immigration, healthcare, and other hot-button issues.

Why? Because these companies know that AI regulation could make or break their futures. Different states are trying to pass their own AI laws, and the industry desperately wants a single national framework instead of a patchwork of 50 different rule books.

The biggest player is a group called Leading the Future, funded by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. They had $39 million saved up at the end of last year and are backing candidates in both parties through connected groups called Think Big (for Democrats) and American Mission (for Republicans).

A rival group called Public First is trying to counter them. It's essentially a proxy war between AI companies, fought through your local congressional race.

The playbook is simple: get friendly politicians elected now, shape AI laws later. Your vote might be deciding the future of artificial intelligence without even realizing it.

As reported by NBC News.

Source: NBC News