Public First Action

Public First Action is a pro-AI-regulation super PAC backed by Anthropic with an approximately $50 million commitment, funding congressional advertising that favours AI safety oversight. It operates as the direct electoral counter to Leading the Future, the anti-regulation PAC backed by Greg Brockman, Andreessen Horowitz, and Joe Lonsdale, which has committed over $100 million. Together the two organisations account for $150 million in AI industry PAC spending in the 2026 midterm cycle — the largest organised AI industry electoral effort in US history.

Both PACs run campaign advertising on healthcare, immigration, and economic issues with no reference to artificial intelligence, reflecting the industry's shared assessment that AI regulation is not yet a voter-mobilising issue. The underlying goal is to install or remove members of Congress who will vote on AI legislation. Public First Action targets pro-regulation candidates and opposes those backed by Leading the Future. The hidden-agenda structure means voters in targeted races may be unaware of the AI industry's stake in their election.

Anthropics involvement marks a significant departure from the company's typical posture of emphasising safety-focused research and regulatory engagement. A $50 million super PAC commitment in a single midterm cycle is substantial: Anthropic is channelling revenue from commercial AI products into electoral politics to influence the legislative framework governing its own industry. The split between Anthropic (pro-regulation) and OpenAI/a16z (anti-regulation) in the PAC sphere mirrors a genuine policy disagreement within the technology sector about whether federal oversight advances or retards the SAFE development of increasingly powerful AI systems.