The Most Important Lobbying Battle of the Decade
Artificial intelligence is transforming everything — from how we work to how wars are fought. And in Washington, a fierce lobbying battle is underway to determine who gets to write the rules. On one side: tech companies spending millions to prevent heavy-handed regulation. On the other: a growing coalition of advocacy groups, labor unions, and even some tech insiders warning that AI poses existential risks.
The stakes are enormous. The companies building the most powerful AI systems are also the ones spending the most to influence how those systems will be regulated. Our analysis of federal lobbying data reveals just how much money is flowing into this fight.
Who's Spending What
Google leads all tech companies with approximately $18.8M across multiple lobbying registrations — including Google Client Services, Google Public Sector (formerly Google Cloud), and related entities. Apple follows closely at $12.1M, with Microsoft at $21.5M.
Even NVIDIA, a company most people associate with graphics cards, has entered the lobbying arena with $970K — reflecting the chip maker's critical role as the supplier of AI training hardware. When your GPUs are the backbone of every major AI system, you have a lot at stake in how AI gets regulated.
The Issues at Stake
Tech companies aren't just lobbying on AI — they're lobbying on a sprawling set of overlapping issues. Three issue codes in the federal lobbying database tell the story:
- SCI (Science & Technology) — $470.4M in total lobbying across 18,026 filings from 2,319 clients. This covers AI research funding, NIST standards, and technology policy broadly.
- CPT (Computer Industry) — $331.3M in total lobbying across 11,310 filings from 893 clients. This captures lobbying on semiconductors, software regulation, and computing infrastructure.
- COM (Communications) — $205.2M across 7,294 filings. Covers telecom, internet regulation, and digital infrastructure — all intertwined with AI deployment.
Combined, these three issue areas represent over $1.0B in total lobbying expenditures. AI touches all of them.
What Big Tech Wants
The tech industry's lobbying message on AI has been remarkably consistent: regulate, but not too much. Companies publicly support “responsible AI” frameworks while lobbying against specific proposals that would impose strict liability, mandatory testing requirements, or algorithmic transparency rules.
Key lobbying priorities include:
- Preempting state laws — Tech companies want federal AI legislation that overrides a patchwork of state regulations, particularly California's aggressive proposals
- Voluntary standards over mandates — Industry-led guidelines rather than binding rules
- Safe harbor protections — Legal shields for companies that follow “best practices”
- Export controls — Shaping rules on AI chip exports to China, where NVIDIA has billions at stake
- Government procurement — Winning federal AI contracts while influencing the standards those contracts require
The Open Source Divide
One of the most fascinating lobbying battles is playing out over open-source AI. Meta, which released its Llama models as open source, has lobbied aggressively for policies that protect open-source development. Meanwhile, competitors like Google and OpenAI have pushed for safety requirements that critics say would effectively ban open-source frontier models.
This isn't altruism — it's strategy. Meta's open-source approach lets it build an ecosystem around its models while avoiding the infrastructure costs of serving them. Regulations that restrict open-source AI would disproportionately benefit companies with closed, proprietary systems.
The NVIDIA Factor
NVIDIA occupies a unique position in the AI lobbying landscape. The company doesn't build AI models — it builds the hardware that everyone else needs to train them. With $970K in lobbying expenditures, NVIDIA's focus is laser-targeted on export controls and semiconductor policy.
The Biden administration's restrictions on AI chip exports to China directly threatened NVIDIA's revenue. The company has lobbied intensely to shape these rules, arguing that overly broad restrictions will push customers to foreign competitors while doing little to slow China's AI development.
Why It Matters
The rules written today will shape AI development for decades. When the companies building the most powerful AI systems are also the ones spending the most to influence regulation, the public should pay attention. The lobbying data reveals a clear pattern: every major AI company is investing heavily in Washington, and they're not doing it out of civic duty.
The question isn't whether AI will be regulated — it's whether the regulations will protect the public or protect the companies. With $91.3M on the table, the tech industry is betting it can shape the answer.
Explore the Data
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