Anthropic puts $20 million into a super PAC operation to counter OpenAI

Silicon Valley's dueling artificial intelligence startups now have dueling super political action committees.

Anthropic, the safety-focused AI company formed by former OpenAI executives, said 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 AI 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 Thursday, Anthropic did not name OpenAI but warned that "vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose" AI safety efforts.

"The AI 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 AI regulation, a position at odds with the Trump administration.

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 past 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.