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It wasn’t that long ago that the prevailing view in Silicon Valley was that politics is both grubby and boring, not worth the time and money of the nerd emperors too busy shaping the future of humanity to care who wins the next election.
But those days are gone, and now it seems that every few weeks we hear of a new tech-funded effort to leverage buckets of cash into the election of friendly members of Congress and state legislators.
The latest, called Innovation Council Action, reportedly plans to spend $100 million between now and the midterm elections in November. It’s run by Taylor Budowich, a key MAGA operative and former deputy chief of staff in the Trump White House.
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It’s just one of many tech industry-funded political efforts, the vast majority of which advocate minimal regulation of the industry, especially when it comes to artificial intelligence. It appears modeled on what the crypto industry — which is closely aligned with tech — did so successfully in 2024: Deploy previously unheard-of quantities of campaign spending to punish skeptics and reward those who pledge to do whatever the industry wants, then reap the policy rewards after the election.
As the stakes grow higher, Silicon Valley’s new political push is a preview of what we will face in years to come if and when AI creates the kind of economic and social upheaval that tech companies themselves tell us is all but inevitable.
Money talks
Whether they were impressed by what the crypto industry achieved or frightened at the rising tide of anti-AI sentiment, the tech industry has decided to invest heavily in the midterm elections, through both individual and corporate contributions to super PACs.
Leading the Future, a group funded by venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, and other leading lights in the Valley, said it raised $125 million in the second half of 2025 in preparation for the midterms. Meta created a network of super PACs aimed at influencing federal and state elections; they say they plan to spend $65 million this year. According to Americans for Tax Fairness, Elon Musk has already spent $71 million ahead of the midterms in donations to super PACs and Republican groups.
What do they all want? The answer is simple: to be free of the pesky meddling of regulators and legislators. They want to stop federal and state government regulation of the tech industry in general and artificial intelligence in particular. While most of the money will go to Republicans, AI-friendly Democrats will benefit as well.
