The AI labs just bought a record quarter in Washington — $7.5M

OpenAI, Anthropic and Nvidia spent about $7.5 million combined on federal lobbying in the third quarter — a record quarter for each company and a 23% jump from Q2, per the Project On Government Oversight's analysis of new disclosures. Nvidia led at $2.2 million, followed by Anthropic's $2.1 million and OpenAI's $1.5 million; since the start of 2024 the trio has spent roughly $37 million, half of it this year.

The money is aimed at chip export controls, child safety, data-center energy costs and copyright liability, with at least 99 AI-related bills in Congress and the labs facing bipartisan criticism over layoffs, power prices and agent incidents. Brendan Steinhauser of the Alliance for Secure AI Action told POGO that 'all of the money is on the side of no regulation, no accountability.'