"Sam Bankman-Fried's PAC spent $70 million on donations in 2022, and Fairshake, a super-PAC formed to support pro-crypto politicians, spent a whopping $245 million in 2024. In just a few years, their bipartisan donations helped reshape the Senate, with cash going to support swing-state Democrats like Ruben Gallego, who pledged to play ball with industry-friendly legislation, while stymieing the election of swing-state Democratic crypto skeptics like Sherrod Brown."
"Bloomberg reports that Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (of the eponymous AI-leaning venture-capital firm) and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman are among the leading donors to a super-PAC called Leading the Future, which looks to spend $125 million this cycle. Also in the mix is Public First, a PAC that received a $20 million pledge from Anthropic PBC, the OpenAI rival behind the AI assistant Claude."
"In Texas, Leading the Future is supporting pro-AI Republican Chris Gober in the congressional race for the Tenth District outside of Austin, while in New York, it has spent $1.1 million dinging the AI-skeptic state assemblyman Alex Bores, who is running in the crowded primary to replace Jerry Nadler."
Crypto industry PACs became major political funders in recent cycles, with Sam Bankman-Fried's PAC giving $70 million in 2022 and Fairshake spending $245 million in 2024. Bipartisan crypto donations helped reshape the Senate by supporting swing-state Democrats amenable to industry legislation and by blocking skeptical Democrats. For 2026, AI companies and investors are emerging as large donors. Leading the Future plans to spend about $125 million and has funded primary campaigns for candidates friendly to AI across parties. Anthropic pledged $20 million to Public First. The PACs use cutout groups to target primaries and promote industry-friendly regulatory frameworks.
Read at Intelligencer
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]