AI Companies Spent $41M on Lobbying in H1 2026
In brief
- Eleven AI leaders spent $41 million lobbying in H1 2026, up 8% year-over-year.
- Meta led with $13.8 million in H1 2025; Anthropic and OpenAI hit new quarterly highs in 2026.
- AI safety standards, export controls, and federal preemption top the lobbying agenda.
- Companies now spend $320,000+ per congressional day on regulatory influence.
The Scale of Influence
Major tech and AI firms collectively spent $109 million on lobbying in 2025, with total AI-related lobbying revenue reaching nearly $130 million for the year. The 2026 trajectory suggests the total will climb further. Put plainly, these companies are now spending more than $320,000 per congressional day trying to shape the rules of the AI game.
The individual players tell the story. Meta led the charge in the first half of 2025, spending a record $13.8 million on lobbying efforts, while eight major tech firms combined for $36 million during that same period. But the real acceleration is happening now. Anthropic spent more than $3.5 million in the first half of 2026 alone. That already exceeds its full-year 2025 total of $3.1 million. The ChatGPT maker spent $1.2 million in the second quarter of 2026, a record for the company.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI surpassed their previous quarterly spending records during this period.
What They're Fighting For
AI safety standards sit at the top of the agenda. The industry recognizes that federal intervention is coming — and they'd rather write the rulebook themselves than watch state legislatures across the country move to impose their own rules on AI development and deployment.
The industry has coalesced around a preference for federal preemption, meaning a single national standard that overrides state law. It's a classic regulatory play: centralize power at the federal level where you have better access and fewer fragmented compliance regimes.
Export controls represent another major battleground. Under the Trump administration, US policy has emphasized maintaining American leadership in AI while loosening certain export restrictions. AI firms are lobbying to ensure that loosening doesn't reverse if administrations change.
Beyond those headline issues, copyright disputes, cybersecurity frameworks, defense procurement policies, and AI infrastructure investment are also drawing significant lobbying attention.
The Washington Machine
Several firms have established or expanded Washington offices and recruited former government officials to navigate the regulatory landscape. It's the standard playbook for capital-intensive industries facing existential regulation — hire the people who used to write the rules, and deploy them to shape the new ones.
The spending levels reveal the stakes. When an industry mobilizes this much firepower this fast, it signals existential concern. Regulation is no longer abstract. It's here.
