Regulatory Capture

On July 17, 2026, Beijing-based Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, reportedly matching Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 at a fraction of the cost. The White House subsequently accused Moonshot of building K3 by distilling Claude, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floating possible sanctions. Amodei escalated a campaign he had already been running (podcast interviews, public statements) claiming Chinese labs including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Minimax 'stole' Claude's capabilities via large-scale distillation and that their benchmark scores are gamed, citing a held-back benchmark where Chinese models allegedly underperformed relative to their public SWE-bench scores. He proposed three policy responses: (1) chip export controls targeting China and smuggling networks, (2) crackdowns on large-scale distillation by Chinese labs, and (3) mandatory pre-release safety testing (cyber/bio/alignment) for 'sufficiently capable' models regardless of open or closed license or origin. Around July 25, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang posted an open letter opposing restrictions on open-weight models, with several AI companies publicly siding against Anthropic's framing. Critics — including a Washington Examiner op-ed and other independent analyses — argued each of Amodei's three proposals disproportionately burdens exactly the competitors currently undercutting Anthropic on price and performance (Chinese labs and open-weight developers who lack independent chip supply or resources for heavy compliance testing), amounting to a bid for regulatory capture dressed as safety advocacy. On July 28, Anthropic published a blog post ('Our position on open-weights models') with Amodei explicitly denying he supports a ban on open-weight models, distinguishing his opposition to state-backed distillation from opposition to open weights themselves.

On June 3, 2026, the European Commission appointed Jim Hagemann Snabe — chairman of Siemens and former SAP CEO — as Special Envoy for Industrial Artificial Intelligence, with a mandate covering AI infrastructure, data centres, HPC, and semiconductor supply chains. The appointment came weeks after Siemens, part of a new Brussels lobbying coalition called European Tech Creators (with SAP, ASML, Mistral, Airbus, Ericsson, and Nokia), had fiercely lobbied to weaken provisions of the EU AI Act. Snabe retained his Siemens chairmanship while taking the advisory role (though he suspended board seats at Google Cloud and C3 AI), and the Commission refused to detail what conflict-of-interest safeguards, if any, applied to the appointment. MEPs including Parliament's lead AI negotiator Brando Benifei publicly criticized the move, and lawmakers pressed the Commission for clarification.

On May 13-14, 2026, after media coverage of his absence from Trump's China delegation, Trump personally called Jensen Huang who then flew to Alaska to board Air Force One. Huang told reporters 'President Trump asked me to come' and praised both Trump and Xi Jinping as 'very inspiring, very welcoming.' The trip raised questions about Nvidia's China business and export control policy given Huang controls 80%+ of the AI accelerator market.

Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), coordinating with Apple to defeat the bill in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. The bill would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress (whose members include Google) issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction.

Apple and Google coordinated lobbying to defeat California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), which would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. The bill was killed in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction. Apple's Senior Director Tim Powderly and Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against the bill. Senator Scott Wiener described the opposition as a 'tidal wave' of corporate lobbying. Big Tech spent over $100M killing similar federal legislation in 2022.

In March 2026, Coinbase refused to endorse the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act twice, specifically opposing a clause banning yield on passive stablecoin holdings. Stablecoin-related revenue accounted for $1.35 billion (19% of total 2025 revenue). The obstruction triggered industry-wide boycott calls and stalled Senate legislation. Investor Tommy Shaughnessy publicly disagreed with CEO Brian Armstrong. Coinbase financially backs the Fairshake super PAC network, giving it significant political influence in the crypto sector.

Meta began a $65 million political spending push in February 2026 through four super PACs -- including newly formed 'Forge the Future Project' (backing Republicans) and 'Making Our Tomorrow' (backing Democrats) -- aimed at electing state-level candidates favorable to AI industry interests. Spending began in Illinois and Texas, generally favoring incumbents and open races over challenging sitting officials friendly to Meta's AI agenda.

On February 11, 2026, Marc Andreessen personally contributed $25 million to Leading the Future, a super PAC he co-founded with Ben Horowitz to elect candidates favorable to a light-touch AI regulatory environment. The donation was part of $42.1 million in personal 2026-cycle political spending disclosed by Andreessen, 97% of which went to super PACs rather than directly to candidates or parties.

Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz contributed $50 million to the AI-industry-focused Leading the Future super PAC and $47.5 million to the cryptocurrency-focused Fairshake super PAC, plus over $1 million to the RNC and MAGA Inc., totaling $93.8 million in disclosed 2026 midterm-cycle political spending -- reported as the largest of any single donor tracked for the cycle -- aimed at electing candidates favorable to light-touch AI and crypto regulation.

At a September 4, 2025 White House tech dinner, Pichai personally thanked Trump for helping resolve Google's antitrust case, saying 'I'm glad it's over' and 'Appreciate that your administration had a constructive dialogue.' Alphabet gained $230B in market cap after avoiding a breakup. Senators Wyden and Merkley later questioned whether this involved a quid-pro-quo between Google's political alignment and favorable regulatory treatment.

Through 2025 and into 2026, DoorDash ran a large, coordinated lobbying campaign (often alongside Uber and Lyft) to pass 'portable benefits' legislation in more than a dozen US states plus federal bills (Sen. Bill Cassidy's Unlocking Benefits for Independent Workers Act; Rep. Kevin Kiley's House companion). The laws let gig companies contribute a small percentage of driver earnings (DoorDash used roughly 4%) to portable accounts while explicitly codifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, avoiding minimum wage, workers' compensation, and unemployment insurance obligations. DoorDash was the top lobbying spender in Wisconsin for all of 2025 (nearly $2M in the first half, ~$2.2M for the year) pushing a bill that Democratic Governor Tony Evers vetoed in August 2025, citing the absence of guaranteed worker benefits. Laws passed or advanced in Alabama, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, Mississippi, Georgia, Kansas, and Wyoming, with bills pending in Florida, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Pilot programs in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Maryland showed limited real-world benefit: a Georgia pilot covering 5,500 drivers produced an average account balance of just $163 after six months, used mostly for emergency savings rather than health care or retirement. DoorDash also organized driver/merchant lobbying days ('DashRoots') in Washington DC to advocate for the framework.

At the White House AI summit in July 2025 where Trump unveiled his AI roadmap, the All-In podcast (co-hosted by Craft Ventures founder David Sacks) attempted to be the exclusive host of the event and asked potential sponsors to pay $1 million for access to a private reception and other events. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles reportedly had to intervene to prevent the All-In podcast from monopolizing the event. This raised concerns about monetization of government access through Sacks' dual role as White House AI czar and podcast host.

Anthropic proposed transparency policy framework for federal, state, or international application. Framework applies only to largest frontier models hitting thresholds like $100M annual revenue. Essentially asks regulators to mandate what Anthropic already does voluntarily through RSP.

After two firefighters suffered chemical burns during training in Boring Company tunnels in December 2024, Nevada OSHA fined the company $400,000 in May 2025. Within 24 hours of company president Steve Davis (who had just finished running DOGE) calling a former Tesla executive in the Governor's office, the citations were rescinded at a meeting with high-level Nevada officials. Public meeting records were altered to remove evidence. Federal OSHA opened an investigation into Nevada OSHA over the incident. A congresswoman demanded transparency, calling it outside 'the official process.'

Bank of Lithuania imposed €3.5 million fine, the largest ever from the Lithuanian regulator, after finding Revolut failed to adequately monitor customer relationships and transactions, 'not always properly identifying suspicious monetary operations or transactions.' The fine represented less than 0.5% of 2023 revenue. No confirmed money laundering was detected during investigation, but systematic monitoring deficiencies were identified.

Bloomberg reported that more than a dozen people with ties to Peter Thiel and Founders Fund were placed in the Trump administration in 2025. These include Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens (considered for Deputy Secretary of Defense), Anduril executive Colin Carroll (Chief of Staff at DoD), Palantir engineer Clark Minor (CIO at HHS), and David Sacks (White House AI and Crypto Czar). ProPublica reported that GSA fast-tracked a contract process favoring Ramp, a Founders Fund portfolio company invested in across seven rounds. The revolving door between Founders Fund's network and the administration raises conflicts of interest as portfolio companies stand to benefit from government contracts influenced by these appointees.

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.'

On December 16, 2024, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son appeared with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago to announce a $100 billion US investment pledge over Trump's term, promising 100,000 AI and infrastructure jobs. This doubled Son's 2016 pledge of $50 billion and 50,000 jobs made after Trump's first election - commitments where the money was eventually spent but it remains unclear whether the jobs were created. Analysts described this as 'SoftBank's version of an inaugural donation, in pursuit of a lighter regulatory touch for the firm and its portfolio companies' including its stake in TikTok parent ByteDance. SoftBank spent $2.68 million on US lobbying in 2024.

In December 2024, President Trump appointed Craft Ventures co-founder David Sacks as White House AI and Crypto Czar as a special government employee, allowing him to continue working at Craft Ventures. A November 2025 NYT investigation found Sacks held 449 AI company investments that could benefit from his policy decisions. Ethics experts called his broad waivers 'sham ethics waivers' lacking rigorous analysis. Craft Ventures invested in BitGo, a crypto company that benefited from the GENIUS Act stablecoin regulation Sacks backed. He also played a role in removing Nvidia chip export restrictions while having grown close to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Senator Elizabeth Warren launched an ethics investigation in September 2025.

On September 10, 2024 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its final ruling ordering Apple to pay €13 billion in back taxes plus interest to Ireland, overturning the 2020 General Court decision and reinstating the European Commission's 2016 finding that Ireland had granted Apple unlawful state aid via tax rulings that allowed Apple to allocate substantially all European profits to a 'head office' that existed nowhere. The judgment was the final word in the longest-running tax state-aid case in EU history and made Apple the largest-ever single corporate tax recovery in Europe.