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Market research · October 13, 2026
AI Lobbying Statistics: 2026 Report
By Darin ten Bruggencate, Founder, AI Industry Reviews
The largest US tech companies have long paid to lobby Congress and federal agencies, and AI companies now do it too. Their lobbying spending has grown quickly since 2023, so we looked at how much they spend and how it compares with Big Tech's.
Our analysts studied the federal lobbying reports of eight AI companies and the four largest US tech companies. The reports run through June 2026. The eight AI companies reported $13.29 million in federal lobbying in 2025, up from $2.02 million in 2023. Anthropic's $1.97 million in the second quarter of 2026 is the highest single-quarter figure for any of them.
In the following sections, we track AI company lobbying by year and quarter, compare it with Big Tech's, and look at the issues the reports cover.
AI Company Lobbying Spending by Year
Because 2026 figures run only through June, the first six months of 2025 and 2026 are shown next to the calendar years for a like-for-like comparison.
AI Company Lobbying Spending by Year, 2023 to June 2026
| Company | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Jan to June 2025 | Jan to June 2026 | Change, First Half 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nvidia | $510,000 | $640,000 | $4,970,000 | $1,560,000 | $2,540,000 | +63% |
| Anthropic | $200,000 | $720,000 | $3,130,000 | $1,280,000 | $3,530,000 | +176% |
| OpenAI | $260,000 | $1,760,000 | $2,990,000 | $1,180,000 | $2,220,000 | +88% |
| Scale AI | $670,000 | $710,000 | $1,180,000 | $460,000 | $1,040,000 | +126% |
| CoreWeave | $130,000 | $320,000 | $480,000 | $180,000 | $360,000 | +100% |
| Hugging Face | $180,000 | $270,000 | $240,000 | $120,000 | $80,000 | -33% |
| Cohere | $70,000 | $230,000 | $200,000 | $100,000 | $120,000 | +20% |
| Databricks | None reported | None reported | $100,000 | None reported | $240,000 | n/a |
| Eight AI companies combined | $2,020,000 | $4,650,000 | $13,290,000 | $4,880,000 | $10,130,000 | +108% |
- The eight AI companies reported $13.29 million in federal lobbying in 2025, up from $4.65 million in 2024 and $2.02 million in 2023.
- In the first half of 2026 the same companies reported $10.13 million, which is 76% of their full-year 2025 total.
- Nvidia had the largest 2025 total at $4.97 million. Its reports changed form that year: Nvidia began filing its own reports in the first quarter of 2025, and before that its figures are the fees reported by the outside firms it hired, which came to $160,000 a quarter from the third quarter of 2023 through the end of 2024.
- Anthropic reported $3.53 million in the first half of 2026, more than any other AI company in the set. OpenAI's first self-filed report covers the fourth quarter of 2023, so its 2023 figure is a single quarter.
- For policymakers and the public, AI companies have quickly become a significant lobbying force. The eight companies reported $13.29 million in 2025, up from $2.02 million in 2023, and reached 76% of that total in the first half of 2026. If this pace holds, 2026 spending will far exceed 2025.
Quarterly Lobbying Spending by OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia and Scale AI
The four largest AI spenders in the set file their own reports, so their quarterly figures can be followed over time.
Quarterly Lobbying Spending by AI Company, 2025 to 2026
| Company | Q1 2025 | Q2 2025 | Q3 2025 | Q4 2025 | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $360,000 | $920,000 | $1,010,000 | $840,000 | $1,560,000 | $1,970,000 |
| Nvidia | $940,000 | $620,000 | $1,950,000 | $1,460,000 | $1,290,000 | $1,250,000 |
| OpenAI | $560,000 | $620,000 | $920,000 | $890,000 | $1,020,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Scale AI | $230,000 | $230,000 | $260,000 | $460,000 | $420,000 | $620,000 |
- Anthropic's $1.97 million in the second quarter of 2026 is the highest single-quarter figure for any of the eight AI companies since the start of 2023. In 2023 Anthropic did not file for itself, and the outside firm Aquia Group reported $50,000 a quarter in income from it.
- In the same quarter, eight outside firms reported a combined $900,000 in income from Anthropic. The largest was Ballard Partners at $380,000. Under the disclosure rules that money is already part of Anthropic's own $1.97 million.
- Nvidia's highest quarter was the third quarter of 2025 at $1.95 million. Its spending has fallen in each quarter since, to $1.25 million in the second quarter of 2026.
- Spending is rising fastest at the frontier labs. Anthropic's $1.97 million in Q2 2026 is the highest quarter for any AI company since 2023, and OpenAI's spending rose in 8 of 10 quarters. Their influence on AI rules in Washington is likely to keep growing.
Big Tech Lobbying Spending Compared With AI Companies
Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon each file their own quarterly reports. Their totals cover every issue they lobby on, from taxes and trade to privacy and AI, so the figures are larger and broader than those of the AI companies.
Big Tech Lobbying Spending by Year, 2023 to June 2026
| Company | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Jan to June 2025 | Jan to June 2026 | Change, First Half 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | $19,300,000 | $24,430,000 | $26,290,000 | $13,950,000 | $13,070,000 | -6% |
| Amazon | $17,850,000 | $17,870,000 | $17,780,000 | $8,840,000 | $8,740,000 | -1% |
| Alphabet (Google) | $12,030,000 | $12,310,000 | $13,100,000 | $6,180,000 | $6,430,000 | +4% |
| Microsoft | $8,970,000 | $9,424,000 | $9,360,000 | $4,920,000 | $5,080,000 | +3% |
| Four companies combined | $58,150,000 | $64,034,000 | $66,530,000 | $33,890,000 | $33,320,000 | -2% |
- The four companies reported $66.53 million in 2025, 5.0 times the $13.29 million reported by the eight AI companies. In 2023 the gap was 28.8 times.
- The AI companies' share of the 12-company total rose from 3.4% in 2023 to 16.6% in 2025 and 23.3% in the first half of 2026.
- AI companies are closing the gap with big tech in Washington. Their share of the 12-company total rose from 3.4% in 2023 to 23.3% in the first half of 2026. If that trend continues, AI firms will be among the largest tech lobbyists within a few years.
How Often Big Tech Lobbying Reports Mention AI
Each quarterly report lists the issues a company lobbied on, with a short description for each. The AI Industry Reviews research team counted how many of those issue entries mention "artificial intelligence" or "AI" in the company's own reports.
Big Tech Lobbying Issue Entries That Mention AI
| Company | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Jan to June 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alphabet (Google) | 14 of 70 (20%) | 20 of 76 (26%) | 22 of 73 (30%) | 14 of 38 (37%) |
| Amazon | 4 of 92 (4%) | 13 of 91 (14%) | 16 of 88 (18%) | 8 of 46 (17%) |
| Microsoft | 7 of 52 (13%) | 8 of 52 (15%) | 8 of 52 (15%) | 7 of 26 (27%) |
| Meta | 4 of 38 (11%) | 4 of 40 (10%) | 4 of 40 (10%) | 2 of 20 (10%) |
- Alphabet's share of issue entries mentioning AI rose from 20% in 2023 to 37% in the first half of 2026, the highest of the four.
- Amazon went from 4 AI-related entries in 2023 to 16 in 2025.
- AI is taking up more of big tech's lobbying agenda. Alphabet's share of entries mentioning AI rose from 20% to 37%, and Amazon's AI entries quadrupled to 16. Expect AI to stay a central topic in big tech's lobbying through 2027.
AI Lobbying Issues by Company
The lobbying reports also tag each issue entry with a general issue code. The codes that appear most often in a company's 2025 reports show the policy areas it lobbied on most.
Most Common Lobbying Issue Codes for AI Companies, 2025
| Company | Most Common Issue Codes in 2025 Reports (number of entries) |
|---|---|
| Nvidia | Trade (16), Computer industry (14), Defense (10) |
| OpenAI | Computer industry (16), Science and technology (9), Copyright, patents and trademarks (8) |
| Anthropic | Science and technology (16), Computer industry (6) |
| Scale AI | Defense (11), Science and technology (10), Budget and appropriations (5) |
- Trade was Nvidia's most frequent issue code in 2025, with 16 entries.
- Defense was Scale AI's most frequent code, with 11 entries.
- Each company lobbies on the issues closest to its business. Nvidia's top issue was trade, Scale AI's defense and OpenAI's copyright. Those priorities point to export rules, defense contracts and copyright law as the main AI policy fights ahead.
What AI Lobbying Trends Mean for 2027 and Beyond
AI companies now spend much more to influence federal policy than they did a few years ago, with Anthropic and OpenAI growing fastest. Each company pushes on what affects it most, from chip trade rules to defense work to copyright. That means the rules that shape AI products are being written with these companies closely involved.
Spending is likely to keep rising as Congress and federal agencies take up AI rules on exports, defense and copyright. The big tech firms are also putting more of their lobbying toward AI, so the newer AI companies will often be arguing alongside or against much larger players. Which side wins will affect what AI products can do and who pays for the content they learn from.
So if you care about how AI is regulated, look up the public lobbying reports for the companies whose products you use, because they show what those companies are asking Congress for.
Data Collection and Methodology
Every figure here comes from the quarterly reports that companies and their outside lobbying firms file with Congress under the Lobbying Disclosure Act.
The set includes every quarterly lobbying report (Form LD-2) filed for each company in the Lobbying Disclosure Act database at lda.gov as of October 8, 2026, covering the first quarter of 2023 through the second quarter of 2026. Reports for the third quarter of 2026 are due October 20, 2026, so they are not included. The set covers eight AI companies that file or are named as clients in these reports (OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Scale AI, CoreWeave, Cohere, Hugging Face and Databricks) and four large tech companies that lobby on AI among many other issues (Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon).
When a company files its own reports, its figure is the lobbying expenses it reported for the quarter. Under the disclosure law's guidance, a company that files for itself must include what it paid outside lobbying firms in that figure, so the outside firms' reports are not added on top. When a company did not file for itself in a quarter, its figure is the sum of the income that each outside firm reported from that company. Where a firm filed an amended report, the latest version counts. Reports filed by a subcontracted firm on behalf of another firm's client were left out to avoid counting the same money twice. Alphabet's figures are the reports filed by Google Client Services LLC, and Amazon's are the reports filed by Amazon.com Services LLC.
Perplexity, xAI and Mistral AI do not appear as a registrant or client in any lobbying report in the database for this period, so they are not included.
Lobbying reports cover federal lobbying only. State lobbying, political action committee giving, trade association dues and spending by super PACs are reported elsewhere and are not in these figures. Companies also lobby through trade groups, which file their own reports that do not split out each member's share.
A company's figure can change shape when it starts filing for itself, as Nvidia did in 2025 and OpenAI did at the end of 2023, because a self-filer reports its in-house lobbying costs as well as its outside firms' fees. Amounts under $5,000 in a quarter can be reported without a dollar figure, and those were counted as zero. The issue-entry counts in the table on AI mentions rely on the wording each company chose for its descriptions.
Sources
- AI Industry Reviews, AI Lobbying Study: analysis of 160 quarterly Lobbying Disclosure Act reports filed for 12 AI and technology companies from Q1 2023 to Q2 2026, conducted October 2026.
- Lobbying Disclosure Act database and API, lda.gov. https://lda.gov/api/v1/filings/
- Lobbying Disclosure Act Guidance, Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House, revised February 28, 2025. https://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/ldaguidance.pdf
- OpenAI OpCo, LLC, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/de4e5ed5-65c4-44dc-8006-be3a20d10ef7/print/
- Anthropic, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/812e5787-90df-48ef-a801-500468d63047/print/
- Ballard Partners for Anthropic, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/8db3955e-600c-4e0a-8944-91a7878ae110/print/
- Nvidia Corporation, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4caec807-4163-44a7-9fbb-2001daedab24/print/
- Scale AI, Inc., LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/4f65477c-e875-40d6-a3ee-cfdcd59e7953/print/
- CoreWeave, Inc., LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/a49a90d4-1d3d-496e-ae90-1b8133457fbe/print/
- Mehlman Consulting for Databricks, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/5fb94557-8ee2-40e3-a465-d6a86496e270/print/
- Meta Platforms, Inc., LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/ca90d94a-2bb1-46ae-9d89-13a2278cc80e/print/
- Google Client Services LLC, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/0676fd59-1d30-4323-aad2-83e03d2ff407/print/
- Microsoft Corporation, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/0c02bfae-fbda-4455-965b-7c0733b643ca/print/
- Amazon.com Services LLC, LD-2 report, Q2 2026. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/10119e1b-77e7-4537-ab88-f4ecb8439048/print/