Silicon Valley’s dueling artificial intelligence start-ups now have dueling super PACs.
Anthropic, the safety-focused A.I. company formed by former OpenAI executives, said on Thursday that it was putting $20 million into a new super PAC operation that will be in opposition to super PACs backed by OpenAI’s leaders and investors.
The donation effectively kicks off a new conflict between the rivals, with this year’s midterm elections as the battleground. At the heart of the disagreement between the companies is whether to regulate the artificial intelligence industry with more safety guardrails around the powerful technology. Anthropic generally favors politicians who are more pro-regulation than OpenAI does.
The New York Times reported in November that the group Anthropic donated to, Public First Action, was in talks with the company to fund its effort to help ensure that OpenAI did not amass too much political power. The regulation-skeptical super PACs backed by OpenAI’s leaders and investors are called Leading the Future.
In a blog post on Thursday, Anthropic did not name OpenAI but warned that “vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose” A.I. safety efforts.
“The A.I. policy decisions we make in the next few years will touch nearly every part of public life,” the company wrote. “We don’t want to sit on the sidelines while these policies are developed.”
Anthropic’s funding will supercharge an effort to elect federal lawmakers who favor more extensive A.I. regulation, a position at odds with the Trump administration.
Public First is a dark-money nonprofit, which means it is not required to disclose its donors but can air television ads on behalf of candidates. On Thursday, it said it would begin a television ad campaign “thanking” Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who is running for governor in her state, for her work on tech policy.
Public First also funds two allied super PACs. One, Defending Our Values PAC, said it would begin an ad campaign on behalf of Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, who faces re-election in 2026 and has also been outspoken on A.I. safety.
The Public First effort was started as a rejoinder to the Leading the Future super PACs backed by OpenAI leaders and investors, which have publicly reported raising over $50 million so far. About half of that came from the OpenAI investor Andreessen Horowitz and about half from the family of Greg Brockman, president and co-founder of OpenAI.
OpenAI, which was until recently a traditional nonprofit, has not been allowed to make direct political contributions. But the company has mounted an aggressive Washington policy push over the last several years, which now includes an expressly political component through its aligned super PACs.
Anthropic, by contrast, is making a contribution in its own name. The San Francisco-based company had spent at least five months “actively working” on a super PAC strategy, said Jack Clark, a co-founder, in September, as part of a broader effort to find its way in Washington.
Anthropic’s $20 million contribution carries some political risks. While OpenAI has been largely embraced by the Trump administration, Anthropic and its chief executive, Dario Amodei, have been perceived as a thorn in the White House’s side. Administration officials such as David Sacks, the White House’s A.I. chief, have regularly and publicly criticized Anthropic. Mr. Sacks said in October that the company was promoting a “state regulatory frenzy that is damaging the start-up ecosystem.”
Theodore Schleifer is a Times reporter covering billionaires and their impact on the world.
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