AI Industry Super PAC Enters Midterm Elections With a $70 Million War Chest

Leading the Future, an artificial intelligence industry-backed super PAC, along with affiliated super PACs and nonprofit advocacy groups, raised $125 million in the second half of 2025 and entered this year with $70 million in cash on hand, according to the committee.

It’s a massive political war chest for the AI industry entering the 2026 midterm election, when issues such as data centers, energy usage, data privacy and artificial intelligence ethics are likely to become key campaign issues.

Among the main donors to Leading the Future last year were OpenAI President and co-founder Greg Brockman, venture capitalists Joe Lonsdale and Ron Conway, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and AI internet browsing company Perplexity, according to the super PAC.

Leading the Future raised a total of $50.3 million, according to the super PAC’s filing Friday afternoon with the Federal Election Commission. Brockman and his wife each contributed $12.5 million to Leading the Future. Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz each personally gave $12.5 million.

Leading the Future also gave $5 million each to two affiliated super PACs, Think Big and American Mission, and the advocacy arm Build American AI.

Think Big reported receiving a total of $5.5 million between Oct. 15 and Dec. 31, with the other $500,000 coming from Conway, according to the super PAC’s FEC report filed Friday afternoon.

American Mission reported $5.25 million in cash on hand, with a $250,000 contribution from Lonsdale Enterprises on top of the transfer from Leading the Future, according to the super PAC’s Friday afternoon disclosure.

While super PACs are required to file these reports with federal regulators, nonprofit advocacy groups, including Build American AI, are more opaque.

Nonprofits can still run “issue ads” that mention specific candidates and comment on how well or poorly they are doing on AI. If they don’t use specific phrases such as “vote for,” “elect,” “support,” “vote against,” “defeat” or “reject,” they’re only obligated to file an annual disclosure with the Internal Revenue Service that states how much money they raised in total. Nonprofits legally do not have to disclose their donors, leaving voters in the dark about who is trying to influence their vote.

Of the pro-AI political operation’s total $70 million in cash on hand, Leading the Future had $39.3 million on hand as of Dec. 31, according to the new filing. Think Big reported nearly $5.4 million in cash on hand, and American Mission reported having $5 million.

“Leadership in AI innovation will define economic growth, national security, and America’s role in the global economy, and lawmakers can’t afford to be distracted by demagoguery that would cause us to fall behind,” Leading the Future leaders Zac Moffatt and Josh Vlasto wrote in a statement.

“Candidates who grasp the stakes can expect us to help elevate that message,” they added.

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The super PAC may by law raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against political candidates.

The super PAC has previously said it would support Republicans and Democrats committed to passing a “national regulatory framework for AI” — an AI industry euphemism for blocking states’ ability to enforce AI legislation.

Last year, a push to limit state-level AI laws failed twice in Congress because of bipartisan opposition.

Leading the Future and its arm, Build American AI, said it plans to engage in both federal- and state-level races during the 2026 midterms. The super PAC said it’s only gotten involved in two congressional races in Texas and New York. In a statement Friday, the super PAC said it plans to announce new targets “in the near future.”

In New York, Leading the Future is opposing Democratic state Assemblymember Alex Bores, a congressional candidate who wrote one of the first AI safety laws enacted at the state level. He is running in a crowded Democratic congressional primary to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler.

“These are people who want unbridled control over the American workforce or American education system, over our utility bills, over our climate,” Bores, who supports creating safety measures for the development and deployment of AI, told NOTUS earlier this month.

In Texas, Leading the Future supports Chris Gober, a lawyer for Elon Musk running to replace retiring Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, who has supported restrictions on AI chip exports to China.

On his campaign website, Gober writes he will support policies that “protect American innovation from China’s economic espionage and champion smart investments in American AI infrastructure.”

Leading the Future’s pro-AI efforts run in parallel to those of Public First, another network of super PACs, which is planning to back Democratic and Republican candidates that support AI regulation.

Former Democratic Rep. Brad Carson, one of Public First’s co-founders, told NOTUS that despite its massive funding, Leading the Future will nevertheless struggle to overcome the wave of AI backlash motivating much of this year’s political discourse.

“AI is a broad, general-purpose technology that everyone has a view on, and you can’t just hope to co-opt a complacent public on it. So I think it’s gonna be a much harder problem, and that’s why they’re not gonna be successful,” Carson said.

This article has been updated to include information from Federal Election Commission campaign finance disclosures filed Friday afternoon.