On January 21, in Donald Trump’s first White House post-inauguration press event, the president appeared with OpenAI chief Sam Altman, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to unveil Project Stargate, a proposed $500 billion network of AI data centers across the United States.
Billed as “the largest AI infrastructure project in history,” the initiative promised tens of thousands of jobs and unprecedented computing power for American firms.
The event also highlighted what Altman’s $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration was able to gain in return. The occasion raised new questions about how AI industry money is shaping federal priorities and emerging rules for advanced technology.
The second Trump administration is rapidly becoming a test case for the power of artificial intelligence money in American politics.
Few figures embody this shift more than Altman. Once a reliable Democratic donor who poured six-figure sums into Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and Senate Democrats, Altman has increasingly aligned his giving with Republicans pressing for looser rules on AI.
Ahead of the 2024 election, he contributed the legal maximum to GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, both of whom later backed a Trump-supported budget bill that sought a moratorium on most state-level AI regulation.
After Trump defeated Kamala Harris, Altman deepened his ties to the new administration. He gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, while Tools for Humanity, a company he co-founded, donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., the main pro-Trump super PAC. Altman has since maxed out to several Republican lawmakers who have pushed to preempt state AI rules or crack down on Chinese competitors to U.S. AI firms, even as he continues to court influential Democrats.
The pattern extends beyond a single executive. Tech giants including Google, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia and Microsoft together gave millions to Trump’s inauguration, even as they sought favorable treatment on issues such as data use and copyright.
A new network, Leading the Future, aims to raise $100 million from AI executives and investors, with combined $50 million pledges from venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and another $50 million from OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman.
At the same time, OpenAI has sharply increased its Washington presence, spending more than $3.5 million on federal lobbying across 2024 and the first half of 2025. Those efforts coincided with Trump’s “America’s AI Action Plan,” which emphasizes deregulation, infrastructure and global competitiveness while largely sidestepping safety and environmental concerns.
Supporters argue that aggressive political engagement is necessary to keep the U.S. at the forefront of AI. Critics warn that it risks allowing a handful of companies and investors to shape the rules governing a transformative technology. With the 2026 election cycle approaching, the influence of AI money in politics is likely to grow.
While there is growing concern about the explosive growth of AI and the massive power hunger data centers needed for AI development. There’s been little attention paid to how the tech giants of AI are spending big on politics and what they are getting in return.
The development of AI is already proving to be setting the groundwork for the largest economic shift in the history of mankind. The mass elimination of jobs, the increase of carbon emissions and the possible creation of super intelligence that threatens the future of humanity all stands to be unregulated and unchecked.
The guarded oversight one would expect for a new transformative technology that is filled with so many unknowns is being bought off with large campaign contributions and promises of economic riches.
Any political voice that rises in calling for caution, slowing and regulating AI is no match.
Guest:
Ian Vandewalker is a senior counsel and manager in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, where he works to address the influence of money in politics and disinformation in U.S. elections.
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law published “Money in Politics Roundup, a periodic summary covering the flow of money from influential industries into national politics, key political corruption stories, and important campaign finance legal developments. This roundup builds on the Brennan Center’s longstanding work on campaign finance and the role of big money in our political system.
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This episode will be recorded on Monday, December 1, 2025, at 12:30 p.m.
