AI's $27 Million Proxy War: OpenAI vs Anthropic
Two AI labs poured tens of millions into a single Manhattan congressional race, and the winner told them both to get lost.
~$24.6M reported but not independently checked; none of it is verified against itemized FEC filings yet. The full breakdown is in the relationship record below.
The money, at a glance
The diagram is a summary. Every relationship it draws is listed below with its type, direction, exact amount, geography, how the amount was verified, and its receipts.
Every relationship, in full
- Verified against FEC filings
- $0.00 across 0 flows, summed from itemized records
- Reported, not independently verified
- ~$24.6M across 2 flows. Deliberately not added to the figure above: an estimate plus an exact filing total is neither.
- Excluded from every total
- 1 unresolved and 0 withdrawn claims, listed below with reasons.
| From → to | Relationship | Direction | Amount | How it was established | Geography | Receipts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leading the Future to Alex Bores | spent opposingIndependent expenditure advocating against this candidate. No money went to anyone named here. | opposes | ~$8MUSD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | New York (NY-12) | Source |
| Public First Action Inc. to Alex Bores | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | Unresolved | UnresolvedA figure exists in reporting but our own source check could not confirm it.News reporting puts this near $19 million. No FEC filing establishing it was inspected, and the reported total spans groups rather than one committee. The registration checks that were run (C30003586 type E, C00930503 type O) establish committee identity and type only, not who paid for which advertisement. Treat $19M as reported, not verified. | New York (NY-12) |
|
| Public First (super PAC) to Congressional races | spent supportingIndependent expenditure advocating for this candidate. The candidate did not receive or control this money. | supports | ~$16.6M (aggregate across groups, per OpenSecrets)USD, rounded | ReportedPublished by a news or research organization; not checked against primary filings here. | North Carolina, Texas, Utah |
|
Backers and affiliations (4) — association only, no amount and no control asserted
- Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), OpenAI investor is associated with Leading the FutureBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Greg Brockman, OpenAI president & co-founder is associated with Leading the FutureBacker or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Anthropic is associated with Public First Action Inc.Backer or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
- Anthropic-aligned is associated with Public First (super PAC)Backer or affiliation only. Not ownership, not control, not coordination.
Funder → recipient → message
No message on this page has a receipt tying a specific funder to a specific recipient, so no chain is drawn. A general note about a funder's ad strategy is not evidence that any individual politician authored, received, or was the subject of that message.
In the 2026 midterms, committees tied to OpenAI and Anthropic turned a New York congressional primary into a referendum on AI regulation. A pro-deregulation super PAC funded by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman is reported to have spent ~$8M trying to sink Alex Bores, a regulation-minded candidate; an Anthropic-backed group is reported to have spent ~$19M trying to save him, the roughly $27M combined that gives this page its title. Bores lost anyway. The winner, Micah Lasher, took 39% of the vote, publicly rebuked both companies, and then went on to pursue the same AI-regulation agenda his defeated opponent had run on. Anthropic-affiliated committees are reported to have spent another ~$16.6M across races in North Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
Every dollar figure on this page is reported, not FEC-verified, and the $19M in particular is now labeled unresolved and excluded from the tracked total. Two source checks on 2026-09-13 changed what can be said about the groups involved. Public First Action Inc. (C30003586) is registered as an electioneering communication organization, type E, not the super PAC this page previously called it. Public First (C00930503) is a separate registration, an independent-expenditure-only committee whose filing names Defending Our Values PAC as an affiliate. A committee registration establishes identity and type; it does not establish who paid for any particular advertisement, so the $19M question stays open rather than being presented as confirmed.
The funders
Leading the Future
Pro-deregulationSuper PAC · OpenAI-aligned · FEC C00916114
Identity unresolved. No registration record for C00916114 was inspected in this package. The committee ID is carried from prior editorial research and is not independently verified here.
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), OpenAI investor
- • Greg Brockman, OpenAI president & co-founder
The organization's own words
Leading the Future says it will support AI development and oppose policies it believes constrain innovation or weaken US leadership in AI.
Leading the Future, distributed through PR Newswire
Correction: Replaces an uncited quotation with a sourced paraphrase of the organization's own release. The release describes both support and opposition criteria.
Public First Action Inc.
Pro-regulationElectioneering communication organization (FEC type E) · Anthropic-aligned · FEC C30003586
Registered as Electioneering Communication (type E) · first filed 2026-03-10 · affiliated committee: none listed
Identity verified. Registration record inspected. The registration establishes the committee's type and filing date only; it does not establish the beneficiary or funder of any specific spending.
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Anthropic
Backs candidates aligned with stronger AI oversight. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI staff, has publicly called for more regulation of frontier AI.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Our analysis, not theirs
This page previously called Public First Action a super PAC. Its FEC registration says otherwise: type E, electioneering communication, first filed 2026-03-10. That is a different registration from Public First (C00930503), which is an independent-expenditure-only committee. Similar names are not evidence of a shared entity, and neither registration establishes who paid for any particular advertisement.
Public First (super PAC)
Pro-regulationSuper PAC · Anthropic-aligned · FEC C00930503
Registered as Super PAC (Independent Expenditure-Only) (type O) · first filed 2025-12-12 · affiliated committee: DEFENDING OUR VALUES PAC
Identity verified. Registration record inspected. Distinct from Public First Action Inc. (C30003586) despite the similar name.
Backers and affiliations (association only)
- • Anthropic-aligned
An independent-expenditure-only committee reported as part of the pro-regulation camp's spending beyond New York.
No source citation on file for this stated position.
Our analysis, not theirs
Reporting groups this committee's spending with Jobs and Democracy and Defending Our Values. Its own filing names Defending Our Values PAC as an affiliated committee; no inspected filing in this package links it to Jobs and Democracy, so that pairing stays reported rather than verified.
What the money is saying
Chains that connect a specific funder to a specific recipient to a specific message are in the relationship record above, where each link has its own receipt. The notes below do not make that connection and are not presented as though they do.
Funder-level strategy (2)
These describe how a funder talks overall. None is evidence that any individual politician authored, received, or was the subject of the message.
Frames AI regulation as a threat to innovation, American jobs, and U.S. competitiveness against China. The deregulation case is the throughline: rules slow progress and hand the lead to Beijing. [source]
Frames the fight as protecting kids, jobs, and the environment from unregulated AI, backing candidates who favor guardrails and oversight of frontier models. [source]
Context, not attributed to any funder (2)
The fight is not only PAC ad money. In Utah, residents demonstrated at the state Capitol in Salt Lake City on May 23, 2026 against a new data-center build. One sign read "not here, not anywhere — end AI." Local opposition to AI infrastructure (data centers, water and power use) runs alongside the super-PAC spending in the same states. [source]
Winner Micah Lasher (39%) told both companies: "I won't be taking my cues from either of you when it comes to protecting our kids, our jobs, our environment." He then pursued the same AI-regulation agenda as the candidate the Anthropic-backed PAC had spent $19M to elect, suggesting the $27M bought neither side its preferred messenger. [source]
Read the framing carefully
The popular shorthand ("Anthropic funds anti-AI, OpenAI funds pro-AI") is misleading. Both are AI companies; neither is against AI. The real split is over regulation: the OpenAI-aligned camp spends to oppose rules it says would stifle innovation and cede ground to China, while the Anthropic-aligned camp spends to support stronger guardrails. The framing matters, because "pro-AI vs anti-AI" hides what the money is actually buying: a particular regulatory outcome.
Receipts
- NPR: Groups tied to OpenAI and Anthropic are spending big on the midterms
- Fortune: Anthropic and OpenAI waged a $27 million proxy war in a Manhattan congressional race. The winner told them both to get lost.
- Yahoo News: A New York primary winner has a defiant message for OpenAI and Anthropic
- Federal Election Commission: FEC registration: PUBLIC FIRST ACTION INC. (C30003586) — committee type E, Electioneering Communication, first filed 2026-03-10
- Federal Election Commission: FEC registration: PUBLIC FIRST (C00930503) — committee type O, independent-expenditure-only, affiliated committee DEFENDING OUR VALUES PAC, first filed 2025-12-12