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

Leading the Future, an artificial intelligence industry-backed super PAC, 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.

“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, which as of Friday morning had not filed an official campaign finance disclosure due Saturday to the Federal Election Commission, 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.