OpenAI, Anthropic Lifting U.S. Lobbying Spending to Record Levels in Q2 2026

According to CNBC, OpenAI and Anthropic lifted federal lobbying spending to record levels in the second quarter of 2026 as the artificial intelligence industry spent millions in Washington ahead of the midterm elections and their planned IPOs. The two companies spent a combined $3.17 million in the quarter, up 23% from the first three months of the year, with Anthropic at $1.97 million and OpenAI at $1.2 million. The filings showed lobbying on cybersecurity, copyright, cloud computing and defense procurement. CNBC said Anthropic spent more on lobbying than Nvidia in the quarter and nearly matched Oracle's $2 million total, while OpenAI came within $50,000 of Nvidia's $1.25 million. Both AI companies also sharply increased spending from the second quarter of last year. A CNBC analysis of five Magnificent 7 tech companies found they spent a combined $21.25 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter, essentially unchanged from $21.27 million in the first quarter. Meta was the largest spender at $5.99 million, followed by Amazon at $4.36 million, Google at $3.57 million and Microsoft at $2.69 million.