Published Jul. 18, 2026at6:00am
San Francisco is still waiting for the AI IPOs — the wave of money from Anthropic and OpenAI millionaires and billionaires that is likely to further supercharge the housing market, create a new philanthropic class, and put the city back in the global spotlight.
But in politics, the AI money has already arrived.
The first sign came last fall, when Anthropic and OpenAI employees gave in force to two congressional candidates who championed AI safety legislation. Twenty-eight of them — 20 from Anthropic and eight from OpenAI — gave Alex Bores, who was running for Congress in New York’s 12th district, a combined $173,000 in a single day. Twenty-four of those donors gave the maximum of $7,000. Two days later, 12 of those donors, plus five additional colleagues, donated to California state Sen. Scott Wiener, running for Nancy Pelosi’s long-held seat in Congress.
This spring, AI money started appearing in state races. In the final two weeks of California’s tumultuous gubernatorial primary, 13 Anthropic and OpenAI employees gave Xavier Becerra the maximum allowable donation of $39,000, totaling just over half a million dollars. Around the same time, a handful of Anthropic employees maxed out to Rob Bonta, the incumbent attorney general. Becerra and Bonta both advanced to the general election and will face voters again in November.