Silicon Valley's most influential powerbrokers are gearing up for a political showdown over the future of artificial intelligence, putting more than $100 million behind a new super PAC designed to shape how the U.S. regulates AI. Dubbed "Leading the Future," the initiative is spearheaded by a who's who of tech royalty—venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, and a slate of high-profile investors and entrepreneurs. Their goal? To ensure that the rules governing AI development don't stifle innovation or hand an edge to global rivals like China.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the PAC's formation marks a dramatic escalation in Silicon Valley's political engagement, signaling that tech leaders are determined to play a decisive role in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. The fund, which already boasts over $100 million in backing, aims to support candidates—Democrat or Republican—who favor pro-innovation policies and resist calls for strict AI controls. "LTF and its affiliated organizations will oppose policies that stifle innovation, enable China to gain global AI superiority, or make it harder to bring AI’s benefits into the world, and those who support that agenda," the group declared in a press release, as reported by Fortune.
The campaign is modeled after the successful political playbook used by the cryptocurrency industry. In 2024, the pro-crypto super PAC Fairshake spent millions to back candidates supportive of digital currency, helping to unseat critics like Senator Sherrod Brown and blocking others, such as California’s Katie Porter, from advancing in the Senate. Now, with Fairshake strategist Josh Vlasto and digital campaign veteran Zac Moffatt at the helm, Leading the Future hopes to replicate that success for artificial intelligence. Both men have deep political ties—Vlasto is a seasoned media strategist with experience working for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, while Moffatt previously served as digital director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and now runs the conservative consulting firm Targeted Victory.
But this isn’t just about copying crypto’s homework. The stakes in AI are arguably even higher. As Breitbart News notes, AI technologies are rapidly transforming everything from hiring processes to national security, raising thorny questions about privacy, fairness, and accountability. The rules set today could determine not only how companies handle sensitive data but whether the U.S. remains a global leader in tech innovation. "If we don't have the right policies, we risk ceding the future of AI—and with it, America's economic strength and national security," wrote Collin McCune, Andreessen Horowitz’s head of government affairs, in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The origins of Leading the Future can be traced back to a series of meetings earlier in 2025 between McCune, Brockman, and Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer. The group quickly attracted support from other Silicon Valley heavyweights, including Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, Perplexity (an AI search startup), and angel investor Ron Conway. Even Anna Brockman, Greg’s wife, is listed as a backer—demonstrating just how personal this fight has become for some in the tech world. As Business Insider reported, the PAC is already planning to expand its fundraising base and recruit more supporters in the coming weeks.
Leading the Future’s strategy is both broad and targeted. The group will pour money into campaign donations, digital advertising blitzes, and lobbying efforts, with a special focus on four battleground states: California, New York, Illinois, and Ohio. These states are seen as pivotal in the upcoming regulatory battles, and the PAC wants to establish a presence early—before the 2026 midterms heat up. Funds will flow through a network of federal and state-level PACs, plus a 501(c)(4) group for issue-based advocacy, maximizing flexibility and influence, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.
The PAC’s leaders are candid about their intentions. They argue that a "vast force" is working to slow down AI deployment, erecting a "patchwork of regulation" that could ultimately prevent American workers from benefiting from the technology. "This is the ecosystem that is going to be the counterforce going into next year," Vlasto and Moffatt said in a joint statement to WSJ. While they insist they are not calling for total AI deregulation, they want "guardrails" that don’t get in the way of innovation. In other words, they want a seat at the table—and maybe even the head of it—when it comes to defining what those guardrails look like.
Not everyone is on board with Silicon Valley’s vision. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed concerns about the risks of powerful AI, echoing warnings from leading researchers like Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio—both Turing Award winners—who have cautioned about the societal dangers of unchecked AI advancement. Some fear that industry-led lobbying could water down essential protections for privacy, labor, and public safety. Still, the PAC’s bipartisan approach—supporting both Democrats and Republicans who align with their views—reflects a recognition that AI policy is quickly becoming a defining issue that cuts across traditional party lines.
The timing of Leading the Future’s launch is no accident. In July 2025, the Trump administration rolled out an AI Action Plan at the Winning the AI Race Summit, calling for faster approvals of new data centers and urging AI labs to strip their models of what it deemed "ideological bias." The PAC’s creation also follows heightened anxieties in Silicon Valley after the release of DeepSeek’s R1 AI model in China, which many in the tech industry saw as a wake-up call about the global AI arms race. "Make no mistake: this is also a race with China," McCune emphasized. "It is in America's interest to lead," echoed Ron Conway on X, arguing that AI transcends party politics and is vital to the nation’s future.
This isn’t the first time Andreessen Horowitz has flexed its political muscle. The firm invested over $23 million in crypto PACs ahead of the 2026 midterms and, in 2024, its co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $2.5 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. Marc Andreessen’s recent shift from Democratic donor to Trump supporter has rattled some in Washington, especially among Democrats who now worry about losing ground with tech donors they once considered allies.
The battle over AI regulation is far from settled. Earlier this year, Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI supported a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI laws—a proposal that was ultimately killed in the Senate after facing bipartisan opposition. With that defeat still fresh, the launch of Leading the Future signals that Silicon Valley is doubling down, determined to ensure that the next round of legislation tilts in its favor.
As the 2026 election cycle approaches, the clash between tech titans and policymakers will only intensify. The outcome will shape not just the future of AI, but the direction of American innovation, economic strength, and perhaps even the country’s standing on the world stage.
