One AI Super PAC Reports Most of the Cash Left

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 — LeadingLeading the Future, the super PAC financed by Andreessen Horowitz’s co-founders and by Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, and his wife, has reported no contributions since Feb. 11. Its latest account to the Federal Election Commission, covering Oct. 1 to 14 and filed on Thursday, shows no receipts.

It reported $23.8 million in cash on Oct. 14, more than 13 times what the three rival Public First committees had at the end of September. With its two spending arms it had paid out about 61 percent of what came in, counting operating costs and gifts to other groups; each Public First committee had paid out more than 90 percent.

The pre-general reports, the last full accounts due before the Nov. 3 election, and the rivals’ latest reports describe two kinds of campaign. One side raised nearly all its money early, from five donors, and has been drawing it down since; on the other, the committees spend almost as fast as they raise, and the newest money for two of them comes from organizations whose own donors the filings do not show. Of the cash last reported by the eight committees in this analysis, most was with a single committee, which can hand money to its spending arms at any time before the vote.

The Bank

Leading the Future’s reports show $75.1 million from five contributors, the last on Feb. 11.Five ChecksA16Z Capital Management gave $25 million on Aug. 22, 2025, and $25 million on Feb. 11, 2026, each split on the filings equally between Marc L. Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz. Greg and Anna Brockman gave $12.5 million each on Sept. 12, 2025; Mr. Brockman listed his employer as OpenAI. Perplex AI Inc., of San Francisco, gave $100,000. After that they list nothing but bank interest, $671,061 of it this year. By Oct. 14 it had passed $47 million to its two spending arms, Think Big and American Mission, and $3.5 million to two other groups: $3 million to a Florida non-federal committee called American Mission Florida and $500,000 to Build American AI.

The transfers have slowed. It sent the arms $10 million on Dec. 15, 2025, $10 million on Feb. 24 and $20 million across May 19 and June 8, then $5 million on Aug. 3 and $2 million, to Think Big alone, on Sept. 14. In the first two weeks of October it sent nothing; its one itemized payment was $30,000 to Prusik Partners, of Henderson, Nev., for management and strategy consulting.

On Oct. 14 what was left of the donors’ money sat mostly with the parent, not with the committees that buy the ads: Think Big reported $1.9 million and American Mission $4.8 million. The parent’s reported balance fell by $27.3 million between the end of March and Oct. 14.

The Arms

The arms split by party, as NBC News described them in February: Think Big backs Democrats, American Mission Republicans. In the first two weeks of October Think Big’s spending supported three Democratic House members, Emilia Sykes of Ohio, Steven Horsford of Nevada and Joseph Morelle of New York. American Mission’s supported 11 candidates, among them Representative Jay Obernolte, a California Republican, and Darline Graham, a Republican running for the Senate in South Carolina, for whom it disseminated $896,414 of media on Oct. 9. Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for Leading the Future, told NBC News in February that it backs candidates “who we believe are the most pro-innovation candidates when it comes to AI.”

Through Oct. 14 the two arms had reported $34.5 million of independent expenditures, money spent for or against candidates but not given to them: $18.5 million by Think Big and $16.1 million by American Mission. Counting the parent’s own costs and gifts, the three committees had paid out about $47.4 million of the $78.0 million that had come in, by Daily Cortex’s arithmetic; their reported cash fell by $3.7 million in the first two weeks of October, to $30.6 million.For ScaleIn the same two weeks Fairshake, the crypto industry’s super PAC, moved $44.5 million to an affiliate, Defend American Jobs, and spent $6.1 million on independent expenditures. It reported $33.0 million in cash on Oct. 14.

The Other Side

Public First, a super PAC registered with the F.E.C. that NBC News described as seeking to counter Leading the Future, has two affiliated super PACs: Jobs and Democracy PAC, which backs Democrats, and Defending Our Values, which backs Republicans.Public First ItselfPublic First reported no independent expenditures of its own through Sept. 30. It took in $4.9 million this year and passed $4.34 million to its two affiliates, their filings show. Through Sept. 30 Jobs and Democracy and Defending Our Values had reported $25.2 million of independent expenditures, against $31.6 million by Think Big and American Mission, and the three Public First committees together had $1.8 million in the bank.

By then they had spent almost as fast as they raised: Jobs and Democracy took in $20.7 million this year and paid out $20.1 million; Defending Our Values took in $8.4 million and paid out $7.8 million. On Thursday Jobs and Democracy reported $599,445 of digital ads and ad production, disseminated on Oct. 21, against the Republican congressman in Colorado’s Eighth District; no report of what it has raised since Sept. 30 had appeared by early Friday.

Their largest named source is Public First Action, which says on its website that it is a 501(c)(4) organization; it is distinct from Public First, the registered super PAC. Jobs and Democracy’s filings list $15.4 million from Public First Action in 2026, and Defending Our Values’ list $7.9 million, both including small in-kind contributions of staff time and, for Jobs and Democracy, consulting.The PaymentsJobs and Democracy lists eight payments from Public First Action between Feb. 17 and June 16, totaling $15.35 million, plus $48,985 in kind. Defending Our Values lists four, between Feb. 17 and July 16, totaling $7.85 million, plus $35,068 of staff time; it also reported $50,000 from the organization in December 2025. The filings show the organization’s payments, not whose dollars they were.

Anthropic says it has given $40 million in all to Public First Action, which it calls “a nonpartisan organization that educates the public about AI.” Announcing the second $20 million in July, it wrote: “Both of our donations were made exclusively to support Public First Action’s public education and policy mission, and cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office.”

Both of our donations were made exclusively to support Public First Action’s public education and policy mission, and cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office.

The newest money shows up in two smaller, newer committees whose spending Transformer, a publication covering AI politics, labels “pro-safety.” Guardrails Alliance took in $850,850 in the first two weeks of October, $850,000 of it in two payments on Oct. 13 and 14 from Guardrails Action, Inc., of Bethesda, Md., which had given it $1.9 million this year. Tomorrow Together took in $2.4 million in the same weeks, all from Tomorrow Together Action Fund, which had supplied all but $127 of the $2.5 million the committee had raised this year. The filings name those organizations; they do not show who gave money to them.

Tomorrow Together spent $1.9 million in those two weeks against four Republican House members: Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Thomas Barrett of Michigan.

Transformer counts differently. Its tracker, built from F.E.C. data, put spending by AI-focused super PACs at $69.14 million on Friday morning: $39.98 million from committees it labels “pro-safety” and $29.15 million from “pro-innovation” ones.The Biggest RaceThe first of Transformer’s top races is New York’s 12th District, where it counts $21.33 million from “pro-safety” PACs supporting Alex Bores and $8.17 million from a “pro-innovation” PAC opposing him. Mr. Bores lost the Democratic primary on June 23. That puts the “pro-safety” side ahead, and its “pro-innovation” figure below the $34.5 million that Think Big and American Mission alone report. The counts cover different committees and dates; Daily Cortex could not reconcile them.

Leading the Future reported $23.8 million on Oct. 14 and can transfer any remaining cash to its arms before Nov. 3. Spending is reported faster than receipts: qualifying independent expenditures of $1,000 or more disseminated from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1 must be reported by the next day. The F.E.C.’s 24-hour independent-expenditure reports list spending, not donors; receipts and transfers after Oct. 14 need not be reported in a regular account before the post-general report, due Dec. 3 and covering activity through Nov. 23.

Daily Cortex is written with AI models, including Anthropic’s Claude, and fact-checked with OpenAI’s GPT models.