Anthropic donates $20 million to bipartisan super PAC Public First Action
The bipartisan 501(c)(4), Public First Action, campaigns on model transparency, federal AI governance, chip export controls and rules on biological and cyber risks.
- Government & policy
- Money & business
- Minor
Anthropic said it was donating $20 million to Public First Action, a newly formed bipartisan 501(c)(4) organisation led by Republican and Democratic strategists, to fund public education and advocacy on AI policy ahead of the 2026 elections. CNBC and other outlets reported the donation the same day.
Anthropic said it did not want to “sit on the sidelines while these policies are developed,” arguing that “the AI policy decisions we make in the next few years will touch nearly every part of public life.” Public First Action’s stated priorities are model transparency, a robust federal governance framework, export controls on AI chips, and targeted regulation addressing biological and cyberattack risks. As a 501(c)(4), the group can engage in political advocacy but, per Anthropic, the donation could not be used to back individual candidates.
The gift placed one of the leading frontier labs directly inside US political spending on AI policy, at a moment when state and federal legislators were debating frontier-model regulation and industry groups elsewhere in the sector were funding their own advocacy campaigns.