OpenAI—Increased federal lobbying spending nearly seven-fold from 2023 to 2024
OpenAI increased federal lobbying expenditure from $260,000 in 2023 to $1.76 million in 2024, a 577% increase. The company grew its lobbying team from 3 to 18 lobbyists. Key hires included former Senate staffers for Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Spending continued accelerating in 2025, reaching $2.1 million through September 2025. TIME Magazine reported OpenAI successfully lobbied to weaken EU AI Act provisions that would have classified general-purpose AI as 'high risk.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Oversight | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Regulatory Capture | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.443 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Increased federal lobbying spending nearly seven-fold from 2023 to 2024
OpenAI increased federal lobbying expenditure from $260,000 in 2023 to $1.76 million in 2024, a 577% increase. The company grew its lobbying team from 3 to 18 lobbyists. Key hires included former Senate staffers for Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. Spending continued accelerating in 2025, reaching $2.1 million through September 2025. TIME Magazine reported OpenAI successfully lobbied to weaken EU AI Act provisions that would have classified general-purpose AI as 'high risk.'