The cryptocurrency and AI industries raised $250 million in the past year for the U.S. midterm elections

According to the Financial Times, an analysis of campaign finance records shows that the cryptocurrency and AI industries have raised approximately $250 million over the past year to support congressional candidates in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections in November.

A16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated a total of $25 million in February to the pro-AI Super PAC "Leading The Future." The organization has raised about $75 million from billionaires, including the two mentioned above and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman; when including "dark money" non-profits that do not disclose their donors, that figure rises to $140 million. The largest Super PAC in the crypto industry, Fairshake, has raised over $134 million on its own.

In January, Cantor Fitzgerald, a Wall Street firm previously led by current U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and now managed by his son Brandon, which has a partnership with Tether, donated $10 million to the pro-crypto Super PAC Fellowship; the parent company of the major crypto platform, Anchor Labs, also added a $1 million donation to Fellowship PAC. Elon Musk donated $1.6 million to his America PAC in March, significantly reducing his involvement compared to 2024, when he invested over $250 million across various PACs.

Anthropic has pledged $20 million to the non-profit Public First Action, which has redirected some of the funds to a Super PAC to influence the 2026 elections. The company holds a relatively unique position in the industry, explicitly calling for the establishment of strict federal AI safety regulations, which diverges from the majority of participants in the AI industry.