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Anthropic more than doubled its spending from $280,000 to $720,000
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Relevant to understanding how AI safety-focused companies like Anthropic are engaging with U.S. federal policymakers, and the broader trend of AI industry lobbying shaping regulatory outcomes in 2024-2025.
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Importance: 38/100news articlenews
Summary
AI companies significantly increased federal lobbying expenditures in 2024, with 648 companies spending on AI lobbying versus 458 in 2023. Anthropic more than doubled its spending from $280,000 to $720,000, while major tech firms like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI also ramped up engagement. This reflects growing industry effort to shape U.S. AI policy amid regulatory uncertainty.
Key Points
- •648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 vs. 458 in 2023, a 141% year-over-year increase in participating organizations
- •Anthropic more than doubled its federal lobbying spend from $280,000 to $720,000 in 2024
- •Companies like Microsoft supported specific legislation such as the CREATE AI Act during this period
- •Increased spending reflects industry response to regulatory uncertainty at the federal level
- •Data compiled by OpenSecrets highlights the growing political footprint of AI companies in Washington
Cited by 2 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Government Regulation vs Industry Self-Governance | Crux | 54.0 |
| Failed and Stalled AI Proposals | Analysis | 63.0 |
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AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertainty | TechCrunch
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Government & Policy
AI companies upped their federal lobbying spend in 2024 amid regulatory uncertainty
Kyle Wiggers
1:03 PM PST · January 24, 2025
Companies spent significantly more lobbying AI issues at the U.S. federal level last year compared to 2023 amid regulatory uncertainty.
According to data compiled by OpenSecrets, 648 companies spent on AI lobbying in 2024 versus 458 in 2023, representing a 141% year-over-year increase.
Companies like Microsoft supported legislation such as the CREATE AI Act, which would support the benchmarking of AI systems developed in the U.S. Others, including OpenAI, put their weight behind the Advancement and Reliability Act, which would set up a dedicated government center for AI research.
Most AI labs — that is, companies dedicated almost exclusively to commercializing various kinds of AI tech — spent more backing legislative agenda items in 2024 than in 2023, the data shows.
OpenAI upped its lobbying expenditures to $1.76 million last year from $260,000 in 2023. Anthropic, OpenAI’s close rival, more than doubled its spend from $280,000 in 2023 to $720,000 last year, and enterprise-focused startup Cohere boosted its spending to $230,000 in 2024 from just $70,000 two years ago.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic made hires over the last year to coordinate their policymaker outreach. Anthropic brought on its first in-house lobbyist, Department of Justice alum Rachel Appleton, and OpenAI hired political veteran Chris Lehane as its new VP of policy.
All told, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere set aside $2.71 million combined for their 2024 federal lobbying initiatives. That’s a tiny figure compared to what the larger tech industry put toward lobbying in the same timeframe ($61.5 million), but more than four times the total that the three AI labs spent in 2023 ($610,000).
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