Meta Platforms Inc., along with a major Silicon Valley venture-capital firm, and tech executives are backing pro-artificial intelligence (AI) political action committees (PACs) to support “pro-AI” candidates in the 2026 midterms, oppose strict legislation, and counter a swelling national narrative of “AI doomers” warning of the dangers of the technology.
Leading the Future, a super PAC created this month with the goal of reshaping Congress in support of major AI vendors, has gleaned more than $100 million in financial support from backers that include OpenAI President Greg Brockman and VC giant Andreessen Horowitz, which has poured billions of dollars in AI ventures and cryptocurrency.
The organization is modeled after Fairshake, a tech-funded super PAC that helped funnel more than $130 million into Congressional races in 2024 in Ohio and elsewhere. Leading the Future’s philosophy is predicated on the premise of “AI boomers” who advocate the growth of data centers necessary to fuel AI model development and the elimination of government regulations that restrict widespread adoption of the fast-moving technology.
Meanwhile, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram on Tuesday announced a California Super PAC, called Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (META), ahead of the state’s governor race.
“As home to many of the world’s leading AI companies, California’s innovation economy has an outsized impact on America’s economic growth, job creation, and global competitiveness,” Brian Rice, vice president of public policy at Meta, said in a statement. “But Sacramento’s regulatory environment could stifle innovation, block AI progress, and put California’s technology leadership at risk.”
Indeed, more than 50 AI-related bills have been introduced in California so far this year, based on research from the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.
Additionally, Airbnb Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. have authored campaign-focused, multimillion-dollar strategies to build clout in the state’s capital, Sacramento, according to a Politico report.
An equally strong motivation for the super PACs and tech lobbying is in establishing a narrative to counter rising concerns that AI will not just disrupt jobs and society but physically endanger human beings.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, OpenAI co-founder Elon Musk, and other tech leaders have increasingly warned of AI’s serious threat to humanity within five to 10 years. A dystopian future, they fear, is almost upon us.
Schmidt envisions a horrifying parallel between AI’s breakneck development and the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. “After Nagasaki and Hiroshima [in Japan], it took 18 years to establish treaties banning nuclear tests,” he said at a summit hosted by Axios in Washington, D.C., in 2024. “We don’t have that kind of time today.”
The nonprofit AI Futures Project, in its “AI 2027” report, recently predicted that by 2030 superintelligence AI could kill people. Computer scientists at Princeton University, conversely, said in a paper called “AI as Normal Technology” that AI will remain manageable for the foreseeable future, much like nuclear power.
