On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump was sworn in for a second time as president of the United States before the chief executives of the leading tech companies. In the front row of invitees were Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Tim Cook, and Elon Musk. The presence at the official ceremony came at a price and was meant to underscore the investment made. The predominantly private financing of American politics gives rise to such situations that sit uneasily with European electoral philosophy.
“The rules governing financial support for political candidates in the United States have as their constitutional pillar freedom of expression, with money as a megaphone.”
The rules of financial backing for political candidates in the United States have as their constitutional pillar freedom of expression, with money as a megaphone. There exist various modalities of economic support for parties, with restrictions designed to prevent the financial capture of politics, yet they can be circumvented. Thus, for example, direct public contributions from an individual to a candidate may not exceed $7,000, but the caps disappear in personal contributions to super political action committees (known as super PAC). Millions of dollars can be legally donated by a person to these entities, which can campaign for one or several candidates without coordinating—at least in theory—strategies with them. There is also the possibility of unlimited donations through certain nonprofit organizations that are not obliged to disclose their donors (dark money).
How Silicon Valley funds US politics
The major tech firms made heavy use of the freedom of expression (financial) in the 2024 electoral cycle, as evidenced by data compiled by Open Secrets. Public donations to Elon Musk’s MAGA coalition nearly reached $600 million — $290.42 million personally and $286.26 million from his SpaceX — representing about 13% of the more than $4.38 billion in private contributions publicly recorded during that period. Other prominent investors in the big tech realm, such as Marc Andreessen and Jeffrey and Janine Yass, contributed to the Republican Party totaling more than $150 million. There were also contributions to liberal candidates from Silicon Valley. For instance, Meta donated to the super PAC aligned with this orientation $113,400 and Google contributed $411,234.
The contributions of big tech during the electoral period — along with those hidden behind nonprofit organizations — offer potential explanations for some recent decisions and initiatives by the U.S. political class. For example, the Trump administration has introduced international digital deregulation as one of the central elements in trade deals and has approved an executive order to globally promote the U.S. AI tech stack. In the past, Obama-era officials were also notably combative when it came to approving regulations on the handling of personal data in Europe and other economic arenas.
The AI law and the midterms as a battlefield
The next frontier for the big tech is to secure the adoption of AI-friendly legislation that protects their investments. Corporate outlays around this technology are exceeding all forecasts, reaching $285.88 billion just in the United States in 2025. It is expected that the capitalization of OpenAI and Anthropic after their upcoming IPO will be close to a trillion dollars. The Trump Administration has presented to Congress a proposal for a regulatory framework friendly to the AI industry. The central pillar is federal legislative supremacy over the states, with a light-touch intervention approach that includes liability exemptions for developers for the use of their models by third parties.
“The aim of big tech to secure legislation favorable to their interests faces a divided political elite”
The aim of big tech to secure legislation favorable to their interests faces a divided political elite. In the ranks of the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders and other politicians have called for a moratorium on deploying data centers. Meanwhile, within the MAGA movement there are differences on AI regulation between the more populist wing and the technologist accelerationists. The stance of the members of these political factions is merely a reflection of voters’ concerns about AI deployment. Among communities with the highest concentration of data centers, opposition to new digital infrastructure projects is growing. There is also clear concern about job losses due to the increasing automation of tasks across all kinds of jobs.
In this environment, the U.S. midterm elections for Congress in November 2026 are shaping up as pivotal for the AI business. At stake will be the 435 seats in the House and 35 of the 100 in the Senate. The electoral apparatus of the big tech industry has swung into action with the creation of the super PAC Leading the Future (LTF). Among the sponsors of the group are Andreessen Horowitz, Greg Brockman (OpenAI cofounder), Joe Lonsdale (Palantir cofounder) and the company Perplexity. The committee has already raised more than $140 million with the aim of “driving a positive and forward-looking agenda for AI innovation in Washington, D.C. and across the states by identifying, maintaining, and growing candidates favorable to this technology at the state and federal levels”.
“Following the political capture of the U.S. executive, the AI industry seeks to steer the legislature toward its positions”
Following the political capture of the U.S. executive, the AI industry seeks to steer the legislature toward its positions. It needs to bring into Congress policymakers favorable to its theses from both parties, so it has hired as leaders strategists associated with each of them. It seeks the passage of an AI law that would trigger a Washington effect capable of globally displacing the Brussels effect, substituting the European precautionary approach to AI use with corporate self-regulation. The ultimate hinge is President Trump, who must ratify the rule emanating from Congress and who hopes his proposal becomes “legislation that the president can sign.”
The LTF will not be the only super PAC at play in favor of the AI industry in the 2026 electoral cycle; it will not be the only instrument either. On the night of November 3, 2026, the victory of the tech oligarchs will not depend on a Republican or Democratic win. The measurement of the success or failure of the platform industry will have to be made by counting the number of candidates elected with funds from major tech firms.
