Regulatory Capture

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.

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 August 5, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining an illegal monopoly in general search services and general text advertising. Google held ~90% of desktop and ~95% of mobile search market share, paying partners tens of billions for exclusive default status. The DOJ case, joined by 30+ state attorneys general, found Google's exclusive dealing agreements foreclosed rivals from competing. In September 2025, remedies were imposed including data-sharing requirements and restrictions on exclusive default contracts, though Chrome divestiture was rejected.

In July 2024, Reid Hoffman publicly called for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Lina Khan as FTC Chair if elected. Khan had aggressively pursued antitrust enforcement against Big Tech, including unsuccessfully trying to block Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition. Hoffman's call was widely criticized as a major Democratic donor seeking to weaken tech regulation, given his financial interests in companies affected by FTC enforcement including Microsoft (board member until 2023) and various tech investments through Greylock Partners.

Bolt drafted a letter in Estonia's name to push back against the EU Platform Work Directive, sent via Sandra Särav, a ministry official who failed to disclose owning €30,000+ in Bolt stock options. The lobbying helped mobilize Estonia and other countries against worker protections. Transparency International Estonia said Bolt 'crosses a line' by representing the government's position.

In 2023, ahead of its landmark DOJ antitrust trial, Google increased federal lobbying spending to a record $17.4 million. Analysis by OpenSecrets found that 87% of Google's registered lobbyists were former government employees, creating extensive revolving-door connections between the tech giant and the agencies regulating it. Google's lobbying army included former officials from DOJ, FTC, FCC, and congressional staff.

On June 6, 2023, the SEC filed suit against Coinbase alleging it violated federal securities laws by operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, and clearing agency, and by offering unregistered securities through its staking program. In March 2024, a federal court rejected nearly all of Coinbase's challenges. However, after Coinbase donated over $75M to Fairshake PAC supporting pro-crypto candidates and $1M to Trump's 2025 inauguration fund, the SEC dropped the case on February 21, 2025 under the new Trump-appointed SEC leadership, raising regulatory capture concerns.

From mid-2023 through 2024, Mistral AI conducted an aggressive lobbying campaign against EU AI Act provisions. The campaign was led by co-founder Cédric O, France's former Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, who joined Mistral in spring 2023 and immediately began lobbying his former government colleagues. O's initial €176 investment grew to approximately €23 million while he lobbied for exemptions that would directly benefit the company - a conflict he did not publicly disclose. Meanwhile, Mistral argued that strict regulation would force European companies to partner with US tech giants, while secretly negotiating a deal with Microsoft that was announced in February 2024. The campaign succeeded: the final AI Act gave broad exemptions to open-source models and general-purpose AI, with only minimal transparency obligations. Fundamental rights checks were removed, and foundation model requirements were significantly weakened.

Analysis by Issue One and Public Citizen found that 85% of Meta's registered federal lobbyists were former government employees as the company faced FTC antitrust litigation. Meta's D.C. lobbying operation expanded significantly during 2023-2024, hiring former officials from DOJ, FTC, and congressional staff. This pattern of revolving-door hiring was part of a broader tech industry trend where 75% of FTC officials had corporate conflicts of interest.

In July 2022, the Guardian published the 'Uber Files' - over 124,000 leaked documents showing how Uber under Kalanick aggressively broke laws, secretly lobbied governments, and exploited violence against drivers to gain public sympathy. The files revealed direct communications from Kalanick directing operations in cities where Uber was operating illegally.

In July 2022, The Guardian and ICIJ published the 'Uber Files' — 124,000+ leaked internal documents revealing how Uber secretly lobbied world leaders including French President Macron, evaded police during raids, and deliberately flouted laws in dozens of countries to force its way into new markets. The documents showed CEO Travis Kalanick personally directed aggressive expansion tactics and that the company treated driver violence as a tool to generate public sympathy for deregulation.