AI companies have put nearly a million dollars into the Senate race of Mike Rounds in South Dakota
Super PACs linked to Anthropic, OpenAI and the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz have put approximately 1 million dollars into the Senate race of Republican Senator Mike Rounds in South Dakota ahead of the November elections, according to Wired.
Super PACs linked to Anthropic and OpenAI and the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz have put approximately 1 million dollars into the Senate race of Republican Senator Mike Rounds in South Dakota, Wired reports. Rounds has so far received roughly 600 000 dollars from outside groups, with the vast majority of that amount consisting of spending by the super PAC Defend American Jobs, which is funded by a super PAC linked to the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Rounds has also directly received about 215 000 dollars from employees and political committees linked to AI companies, primarily Anthropic, but also other technology companies including Google and Microsoft.
The super PAC Leading the Future, funded by, among others, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and investors Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, announced on Thursday that it would allocate 2 million dollars to support a number of Republican senators sympathetic to the AI and crypto industries; Rounds is among those receiving support.
According to the source, Rounds is viewed in the AI industry as one of its main allies on regulatory issues, which could be crucial in the next Congress, where AI regulation is expected to be a priority topic. Data center regulation is already a live issue in South Dakota — the state legislature this year passed a law requiring operators of large data centers to bear a greater share of water and energy costs. Rounds ultimately supported introducing restrictions on data centers, even though his adviser and former chief of staff is a registered lobbyist for Meta on matters before the South Dakota legislature; according to the office of Rounds, it consulted the Senate Ethics Committee about this situation, and the committee found no conflict of interest.
According to the source, the race is not considered competitive in South Dakota — recent polls show Rounds ahead of independent candidate Brian Beng after Democratic candidate Julian Beaudion withdrew from the campaign last month.
Why it matters
The case shows how AI companies and their investors directly fund political campaigns to secure favorable lawmakers for upcoming debates on AI and data center regulation — for those following politics and the AI industry, it is a concrete example of growing political lobbying by this sector, including tensions over data center water and energy costs that other US states are also addressing.
Two audiences, two different impacts
What this means
For individuals
Political spending by AI companies suggests the direction that future AI and data center regulation in the USA will take, which may eventually affect the terms and availability of AI products beyond South Dakota as well.
More practical updates →For a business
Anthropic and OpenAI, together with investor Andreessen Horowitz, show that funding political campaigns is becoming part of corporate strategy to influence AI and data center regulation in the USA — a relevant precedent for companies operating in this sector.
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