{"id":4614,"date":"2026-04-23T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:00:10","slug":"big-tech-is-spending-226000-a-day-on-lobbying-congress-advocacy-group-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/?p=4614","title":{"rendered":"Big Tech is spending $226,000 a day on lobbying Congress, advocacy group finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

From presidential inaugurations to high-profile dinners to documentary screenings, Big Tech leaders have become a fixture in the White House. And it looks like it\u2019s spreading to Capitol Hill as well\u2014their representatives are expanding their influence in Washington by spending millions in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Big Tech companies, and especially emerging AI giants, are now spending more than ever on lobbying in Congress. In just the first three months of 2026, 11 top tech companies, including Alphabet, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI, spent $20 million on lobbying, according to an analysis of first-quarter lobbying reports by Issue One, a bipartisan political reform group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an average of $226,000 a day in the first 90 days alone.<\/p>\n

Big Tech\u2019s lobbying spending has nearly doubled since 2020, as concerns grow about how social media has reshaped Americans\u2019 lives, and as AI companies look to shape regulations over the controversial technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meta spends the most money by far: Between January and March, the company invested $7.1 million, or nearly $80,000 a day, on federal lobbying. Still, when compared to its previous lobbying efforts, the company spent about $900,000 less than during Q1 last year. Alphabet, which files disclosures through its subsidiary companies like Google and YouTube, spent a total of $4.13 million during the first quarter, up about $400,000 from the same period in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

AI-centered companies have been increasingly investing more in lobbying. Anthropic\u2014whose first quarter was defined by its rocky relationship with the White House\u2014more than quadrupled its congressional lobbying in the last year, spending $1.56 million last quarter, compared to $360,000 just a year prior. Likewise, OpenAI almost doubled its lobbying spending from $560,000 to $1.02 million in the same time period.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting heavily in Washington influence operations is one way that these companies try to buy access and influence in Washington. Companies all across the economy, all sectors of the economy, want to have friends in Washington who will listen to their perspectives,\u201d Michael Beckel, Issue One\u2019s director of money and politics reform, told Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All told, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Anthropic, and OpenAI employed 307 lobbyists during the first quarter. That\u2019s one for every two members of Congress. Alphabet and Meta alone have 88 and 86 lobbyists, respectively, or one for every six members of Congress.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Issue One<\/p>\n

Larger lobbying investments come at a moment when more Americans are souring on Big Tech and their big plans for the future. As more data centers needed to support AI cropped up in Americans\u2019 backyards, raising energy prices and temperatures in some cases, about a third of Americans say data centers do more bad than good for the environment, energy costs, and local quality of life, a March survey from Pew Research Center found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As midterm election campaigns start heating up, AI and energy will likely take center stage. But the question remains of how lawmakers will respond to voters\u2019 concerns as AI giants try to exert more influence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is coming at a time when we\u2019re seeing this multi-faceted, one-two punch approach. Spending money on lobbying is one way to exert influence. Spending money on campaign contributions is another way to exert influence,\u201d Beckel said. \u201cMajor AI players are also investing tens of millions of dollars, almost $200 million and counting, into super PAC operations to spend heavily in the 2026 midterms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

These numbers only account for federal lobbying, but Big Tech companies also spend lots of time and money influencing state and local politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anthropic and OpenAI are currently backing opposing bills in the Illinois General Assembly that address how frontier AI companies would be held liable in the case of extreme disasters. OpenAI is supporting a bill that would not hold frontier AI developers liable for causing death or serious injury to 100 or more people or causing more than $1 billion in property damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anthropic is standing behind a separate bill, SB 3261, which would require AI developers to publish a public safety and child protection plan on their website. That bill also creates an incident reporting system to inform legislators and the public of \u201ccatastrophic risk,\u201d or an incident that could result in the death or serious injury of 50 or more people caused by a frontier developer\u2019s development, storage, use, or deployment of a frontier model.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Issue One<\/p>\n

#Big #Tech #spending #day #lobbying #Congress #advocacy #group #finds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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