Leading the Future is a pro-AI political action committee, formed to influence US 2026 midterm elections, with more than $100 million in committed funding. It is backed by Greg and Anna Brockman, the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and other Silicon Valley frontier-AI figures, and it positions itself in opposition to state-level AI regulation.
Overview and funding
The PAC announced commitments exceeding $100 million, according to The Washington Post (August 26, 2025). The same day, The New York Times reported a broader $200 million pledge from Silicon Valley across multiple pro-AI super PACs ("Silicon Valley Pledges $200M to New Pro-AI Super PACs," NYT, August 26, 2025). The PAC's stated target is the US 2026 midterm elections.
FEC filings through June 30, 2026, reported July 27, 2026, showed the network had spent almost $25 million and held over $30 million in cash. The launch total exceeded $100 million, including $25 million each from Marc Andreessen and OpenAI president Greg Brockman. The network is co-headed by Josh Vlasto and Zac Moffatt, whose operators described House Republican and Democratic primary wins in Arizona as their most recent victories; critics cited a network of meme "sockpuppet" accounts (Source: politico.com).
Data compiled by Public Citizen and reported August 20, 2026 put the PAC's midterm fundraising at $140 million, within a total of $517 million in corporate spending on the 2026 congressional races over the 15 months through the end of the first quarter — above the $461 million spent over two years for the 2024 cycle. The same account records Anthropic as having donated at least $40 million through a dark-money nonprofit, Public First Action, which had raised $100 million, placing a second frontier lab in the electoral-funding field alongside the PAC's OpenAI-linked backers. OpenAI has said it does not finance or direct the PAC's activities (Source: reuters.com).
Backers
Principal backers include Greg and Anna Brockman — Greg Brockman is OpenAI's president and Anna Brockman his wife — and the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). TechCrunch reported the funding arrangement in "OpenAI's Brockman and a16z funnel cash to pro-AI super PAC" (January 30, 2026). The Information described the couple's political giving in "How Greg and Anna Brockman Became MAGA Megadonors" (January 23, 2026). Additional backing comes from other Silicon Valley frontier-AI figures. See Greg Brockman.
Positions and strategy
The PAC frames its activity as defensive against what it characterizes as "anti-innovation" state regulation, taking an explicit position opposing state-level AI laws. Bloomberg reported on the broader industry effort in "OpenAI, Google, Meta Push to Block State AI Regulations in the US" (August 21, 2025). The companion coalition American Innovators Network (AIN) serves as the lobbying arm, while Leading the Future serves as the electoral-funding arm.
Several sources characterize the effort as the largest concentrated pro-AI electoral spending reported to date and describe it as marking a shift of frontier AI from a technology and policy question into electoral politics. The Brockmans' involvement reflects direct participation by frontier-lab principals, rather than only investors or lobbyists, in electoral politics on AI issues.
Leading the Future spent $8 million to defeat New York Assemblymember Alex Bores and fell largely silent after Bores narrowly lost his June 23, 2026 Manhattan primary. A person familiar with the network's strategy told Politico it was unlikely to repeat such negative-advertising blitzes; in the Bores race, pro-regulation super PACs — including roughly $12 million attributed to Anthropic-linked Public First Action — outspent Leading the Future by more than two to one, an outcome AI-safety advocates characterized as evidence that the industry's intimidation strategy was faltering. The network nonetheless pledged $600,000 on June 25, 2026 for an Arizona House candidate (Source: politico.com). A September 15, 2026 account of the race gives a different figure, more than $7.6 million spent against Bores, and records Public First Action as backed by $20 million from Anthropic and total outside money in the primary as above $40 million, the most expensive House primary of the cycle. Bores launched the nonprofit Who Decides the same day with $10 million raised, saying it would work through existing organizations in 11 battleground states rather than try to outspend Leading the Future (Source: fortune.com).
A counter-PAC emerged from inside OpenAI's own workforce in July 2026: current and former OpenAI employees donated more than $215,000 to Guardrails Alliance, a super PAC advocating stricter frontier-AI regulation that positions itself explicitly against Leading the Future, ahead of the group's first FEC filing on July 15, 2026 (Source: wired.com).
Q2 2026 FEC filings reported July 17, 2026 showed Leading the Future holding $31.5 million after transferring $20 million to two affiliated PACs (Source: axios.com). Reporting published July 18, 2026 described employees of OpenAI and Anthropic as already out-donating the post-IPO Google, Meta, and Airbnb cohorts as a political donor class (Source: sfstandard.com).
Through its affiliated Think Big PAC, Leading the Future named its first Democratic endorsements for the general election, reported by Axios on September 25, 2026: Reps. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) and Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.), with plans to spend six figures in each district. Axios put the super PAC's cash at $31 million at the end of the second quarter, after transfers of $20 million to affiliated groups including $10 million to Think Big PAC (the July account above gives $31.5 million), and reported that more than 170 Democratic organizers and campaign staff had urged party leaders that month to refuse its money (Source: axios.com).
"The Wire by Acutus"
Per documents posted by The Midas Project on April 24, 2026, OpenAI's "The Wire by Acutus" — an AI-generated site publishing articles attacking AI-industry critics — appears to be funded by Leading the Future. The site's known target list includes House candidate Alex Bores and his "AI dividend" proposal (Source: x.com). The Midas Project documents describe this as the first publicly documented case of a pro-AI super PAC operating an AI-generated content channel to attack AI-industry critics, bearing on AI Political Bias, Synthetic Media / Deepfakes, and questions of funding behind AI political messaging.
Relationships
- supports: AI-industry positions against state regulation.
- contradicts: Public First Action (super PAC) (opposing super PAC on AI regulation), Who Decides (nonprofit) (pro-regulation nonprofit founded by Bores after his primary loss), California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act, Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205) and SB 25B-004 (Date Amendment), New York RAISE Act (S. 8828), xAI LLC v. Weiser (challenging the Colorado AI Act) (indirectly aligned; Leading the Future is regulatory, xAI is litigation; both attack state laws).
- related: American Innovators Network (AIN), Greg Brockman, planned Anna Brockman, OpenAI, (Source: washingtonpost.com), planned AI Industry Lobbying — The 2025-2026 Political Offensive.
Sources
- Washington Post / Pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future has $100M (2025-08-26)
- NYT / Silicon Valley Pledges $200M to New Pro-AI Super PACs (2025-08-26)
- Bloomberg / OpenAI, Google, Meta Push to Block State AI Regulations (2025-08-21)
- TechCrunch / OpenAI's Brockman and a16z funnel cash to pro-AI super PAC (2026-01-30)
- The Information / How Greg and Anna Brockman Became MAGA Megadonors (2026-01-23)