The AI industry is spending millions to shape the 2026 election. And the most surprising part? Their ads have nothing to do with AI.

Competing super PACs backed by OpenAI and Anthropic are pouring money into congressional races. They are funding attack ads about immigration, healthcare, and Donald Trump. The word AI does not appear. But the stakes for the industry could not be higher.

The Two Sides

Leading the Future is the OpenAI-aligned super PAC. It has received significant funding from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna Brockman, as well as venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz. The group had 39 million dollars banked at the end of last year and is pushing for a national framework for AI regulation.

On the other side is Public First, funded by Anthropic to the tune of at least 20 million dollars. This group calls for more significant regulation on AI and is seeking to counter Leading the Future network.

The Strategy

Here is the twist: both sides are spending big on issues that have nothing to do with artificial intelligence.

Brad Carson, former congressman and Defense Department official who helps lead Public First, put it this way: while the public recognizes the importance of AI, we know AI is not the first thing on every voter mind when they go to the polls. They are worried about cost of living, about corruption, about whether the economy is working for regular people or just for tech billionaires.

So instead of advertising about AI policy, the groups are leaning into what works: wedge issues. Immigration. Healthcare. The hot-button topics that actually move voters.

The Money

This is not small-time lobbying. Leading the Future has already spent over 1.5 million dollars attacking candidate Alex Bores in a New York Democratic primary by hammering him for his former work at Palantir and its ICE contracts. The ad? Not about AI. It was about immigration enforcement.

In North Carolina, Public First has spent nearly 1 million dollars supporting Representative Valerie Foushee, who sits on a key AI commission. The race has become a proxy war between the two AI giants.

The Real Battle

What these super PACs actually want is control of how AI gets regulated. OpenAI and its allies want a national framework that prevents a patchwork of state regulations. Anthropic wants stronger safety regulations. Both see Congress as the battleground.

But they have learned something important: voters do not care about AI policy yet. So the industry is doing what industries always do: find issues that resonate and use those to get their candidates into office.

The question is what happens when the technology they are fighting over finally becomes impossible to ignore.

Sources:

• NBC News - Ads funded by AI industry are flooding the 2026 election. They are about everything except AI.
• Quartz - The AI spending war heads to the 2026 campaign trail
• American Prospect - AI Goes to Bat for Valerie Foushee
• The Atlantic - Anthropic Takes a Stand