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From left, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Anthropic cofounder Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.<\/p>\n
Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez, Markus Schreiber and Aurelien Morissard\/AP<\/p>\n
A television commercial that ran in Texas this spring describing GOP congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz<\/a> as “Trump endorsed” and “strong on border security” looked like a standard-issue campaign ad.<\/p>\n But the fine print showed the ad was paid for by a super PAC connected to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, part of a nationwide effort by artificial intelligence companies to elect candidates from both sides of the aisle they view as supportive of their efforts to grow the technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Texas, groups\u00a0connected to\u00a0companies\u00a0including Anthropic, OpenAI and Palantir\u00a0spent more than $3.5 million supporting four federal candidates in the\u00a0primaries this year, all of them Republicans, according to a review of federal campaign finance reports. The candidates were\u00a0Jessica Hart\u00a0Steinmann in the state’s 8th Congressional District, Alex\u00a0Mealer in the 9th and Chris Gober in the 10th, along with De La Cruz in the 35th.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The spending, which has since dropped off in the\u00a0lead-up to the midterms,\u00a0came amid increasing calls for Congress to regulate<\/a> the burgeoning AI industry and the sprawling data centers that fuel it.\u00a0<\/p>\n “They’re flooding the candidates with money,” Cathy\u00a0Latham, Texas director at the non-profit Humans First, said of AI companies. “We need regulations. They’re not going to self-regulate.”<\/p>\n In the 10th Congressional District, which stretches from Austin to the Houston suburbs, a super PAC controlled by the political network Leading the Future spent almost $750,000 supporting Republican Chris Gober’s campaign<\/a> to replace U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul.\u00a0The group\u00a0is backed by\u00a0Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, and Austin’s\u00a0Joe Lonsdale, cofounder of Palantir, a software company that uses AI to develop software for businesses and the military.<\/p>\n In the March primary, Gober defeated Ben Bius, a Huntsville businessman who has been critical of the data center boom overtaking much of Texas.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “They bought the seat and intended to from day one,” Bius said.<\/p>\n OpenAI and Palantir did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about the ads, Gober’s campaign said in a statement, “AI is moving fast and Americans are right to be worried.”<\/p>\n “While we need it to defend ourselves against enemies building their own systems, we also have to protect our kids, our electrical grid, our natural resources, and our way of life, and make sure it doesn’t destroy the human race, because too much is on the line.”<\/p>\n In the 8th district, a Leading the Future super PAC spent more than $500,000 on television ads and mailers supporting\u00a0Hart Steinmann, an attorney with the America First Policy Institute and a former staffer to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. And in the 9th, Anthropic’s Public First Action network spent almost $750,000 to boost Mealer, an Army veteran who worked on energy deals at Wells Fargo. Both candidates won their nominations, as did De La Cruz.<\/p>\n None of the three responded\u00a0to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Texas has emerged as a battleground over the future of the industry<\/a>, with the state Legislature expected to consider cracking down next year on the flood of data center projects and computer chip plants now under development.<\/p>\n The Chronicle limited its review to congressional candidates. Earlier this year it reported that a super PAC backed by Meta began running ads in Texas<\/a> supporting candidates for the state Legislature and the comptroller’s office that it viewed as industry friendly \u2013 part of a $65 million national effort.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the four congressional candidates backed by the groups, only one \u2013 De La Cruz \u2013 is facing a competitive challenge ahead of Nov. 3<\/a>. That may partly explain why the funding has appeared to dry up. But AI companies have also come under more intense scrutiny in recent weeks, amid reports of models going rogue and former employees warning that the technology could pose existential threats to humanity if it’s not reined in.<\/p>\n