Why OpenAI says it isn’t spending on Super PACs

Source Domain: www.aol.com

Chris Lehane, Head of Global Affairs Office, OpenAI. International Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence at the Grand Palais in Paris on February 10, 2025. – Isa Harsin/SIPA/Shutterstock

AI company Anthropic announced this week it is giving $20 million to a political group campaigning for more regulation of the technology – but its main rival, OpenAI, is telling its employees it won’t be making similar donations.

In a memo to staff on Thursday, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane said that while OpenAI allows its employees to “express their ideological beliefs in terms of who they support,” the company itself won’t be making similar moves anytime soon.

OpenAI is not yet contributing to political action committees or 501(c)(4) social-welfare nonprofits because OpenAI wants to retain control of its political spending, Lehane told CNN in an interview.

“We do believe it’s really important that this issue transcends partisan politics,” Lehane said.

The stakes are especially high this year. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are reportedly mulling what could be blockbuster initial public offerings this year, while Congress is working to craft the rules of the road for industry for the next decade or longer. And as the midterm elections approach, voters are increasingly worried about the consequences of AI development, from energy bills to privacy to job loss.

Though OpenAI is not making super PAC donations, its executives and biggest investors have made major contributions. President and co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, have donated $25 million to a super PAC that supports President Donald Trump.

Brockman, as well as several of OpenAI’s top investors, have collectively donated more than $100 million to a bipartisan super PAC called Leading the Future that advocates against state-level AI regulation in favor of a national regulatory framework, which Lehane acknowledged in his memo to staff. The group has already paid for ads…

Source