OpenAI’s Brockman backs AI safeguards while a group he funded with $25 million fights strict regulation

OpenAI President Greg Brockman has publicly urged safeguards for artificial intelligence while a political group he funds opposes regulation¹.

Brockman signed a voluntary AI safety pact, yet his $25 million donation backs a group that opposes AI restrictions². He was among six technology executives who later signed President Donald Trump’s voluntary AI safety agreement^6,8.

The group, Leading the Future, received $25 million from Brockman and backs candidates opposed to strict AI rules⁵. Brockman and his wife, Anna, made the donation¹⁰, and the group is spending millions in the midterm campaign⁷.

OpenAI executives have publicly backed AI safety measures, which sits awkwardly with the personal donation to a group working against restrictive rules^3,4.

The wider money fight

Brockman is not the only AI figure spending heavily around the midterms. Rival AI developer Anthropic has poured $40 million into Public First Action, a political action committee⁹.

Brockman has also been seen at a Trump fundraising event. He and Google co-founder Sergey Brin attended a MAGA Inc. dinner at Mar-a-Lago in October¹.

One of the biggest AI policy debates in the campaign is over the role of the federal government, and the donations put the companies’ leaders directly into that contest¹⁰. The group Brockman funded is spending millions of dollars on it⁷.

Why it matters to investors

The donation raises questions about how OpenAI’s public commitments on safety line up with the political spending of its leadership³. OpenAI’s executives have backed safety measures in public, while the money from its president supports candidates opposed to strict rules^4,5.

For investors, the stakes are the rules under which AI companies will operate as they seek more capital. The pact Brockman signed at the White House is voluntary, while the candidates that Leading the Future backs would help decide whether binding rules follow^5,6.

The sums are concrete: $25 million from Brockman and his wife, and $40 million from Anthropic into a separate committee^9,10.

The midterm races those groups target will shape how far the federal government steps into AI policy, the question at the centre of the campaign’s technology debate^7,10.