Anthropic spent $1.97 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter, up 26% on the first and more than Nvidia spent, on disclosures filed with Congress on Tuesday 21 July1. OpenAI spent $1.2 million, up almost 18%. Their combined $3.17 million is a record for both companies and up 23% on the quarter.
The two labs lobby on different ground. Anthropic's filings cover export controls, cybersecurity and AI safety standards. OpenAI's cover copyright, cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity and privacy. Neither list names labour-market policy, the subject on which Congress has managed no floor vote all year.
The relative movement carries more information than the sums, which stay small beside what the largest technology firms spend. Lobbying by the seven largest US technology companies by market value ran roughly flat quarter-on-quarter, while eight large defence contractors cut their combined spend by more than 3%. Anthropic and OpenAI are both spending against the November midterms and against eventual public listings. OpenAI has already offered Washington a 5% equity stake worth $42.6 billion, and the AI-aligned Leading the Future committee contested June primaries against a rival group capitalised at $50 million.
