A visitor watches an AI sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress, the telecom industry’s biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona.
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OpenAI and Anthropic increased their federal lobbying spending to record levels in the second quarter of 2026 as the artificial intelligence industry poured millions into influencing Washington ahead of the midterm elections and ahead of their highly anticipated IPOs.
Together, the two leading AI developers spent $3.17 million during the quarter, up 23% from the first three months of the year, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
Anthropic spent $1.97 million from April through June, up 26% from the first quarter. OpenAI spent $1.2 million, an increase of nearly 18%. The companies reported lobbying on issues including cybersecurity, copyright, cloud computing and defense procurement.
Monitoring lobbying spending, which companies must report quarterly to Congress, is a way to gauge which companies and industries are most active in influencing the federal government. Companies with interests in shaping legislation or regulation often ramp up their spending.
Established technology and defense companies still spend far more overall, but OpenAI and Anthropic are narrowing the gap with some of Washington’s biggest corporate lobbying operations.
For example, Anthropic spent more on lobbying than Nvidia during the quarter and nearly matched Oracle’s $2 million total. OpenAI came within $50,000 of Nvidia, which spent $1.25 million.
Both AI companies also sharply increased their spending from the second quarter of last year: Anthropic’s more than doubled, while OpenAI’s nearly doubled.
A CNBC analysis of five “Magnificent 7” tech companies — Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia and Tesla — found they spent a combined $21.25 million on federal lobbying during the second quarter, essentially unchanged from $21.27 million in the first quarter.
Meta remained the largest spender in the bunch in the second quarter at $5.99 million, though its lobbying expenditures fell 15% from the first quarter this year. Amazon’s spending was nearly unchanged at $4.36 million.
Google and Microsoft moved in the opposite direction. Google increased its spending 25% from last quarter to $3.57 million, while Microsoft raised its total nearly 13% to $2.69 million.
Those companies collectively boosted their lobbying spending 7.7 percent compared with the second quarter of 2025 as tech has been in the spotlight on Capitol Hill. They reported lobbying in the most recent quarter on issues including trade, China, taxes and export controls.
Major defense contractors, another sector that like tech is a habitual big spender, reduced their combined spending compared with the previous quarter.
The eight largest U.S.-based publicly traded defense contractors, ranked by fiscal 2024 Defense Department contract obligations in the latest General Services Administration’s SAM.gov Top 100 Contractors report, spent $19.68 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter, down 3.3% from $20.36 million in the first quarter.
Lockheed Martin led the group at $4.18 million, followed by RTX at $3.86 million and General Dynamics at $3.42 million.
RTX cut its spending by $600,000, the largest decline in dollar terms from the first quarter to second quarter among the defense companies reviewed by CNBC. L3Harris reported the steepest percentage drop, reducing its spending nearly 45% to $530,000. Huntington Ingalls, Northrop Grumman and Leidos also posted double-digit declines.
Boeing was had the biggest spending increase among the eight companies, increasing spending 13% to $2.77 million.
