AI lobbying spikes nearly 200% as calls for regulation surge
Artificial intelligence-related lobbying reached new heights in 2023, with more than 450 organizations participating. It marks a 185% increase from the year before, when just 158 organizations did so, according to federal lobbying disclosures analyzed by OpenSecrets on behalf of CNBC.
The spike in AI lobbying comes amid growing calls for AI regulation and the Biden administration’s push to begin codifying those rules. Companies that began lobbying in 2023 to have a say in how regulation might impact their businesses include TikTok owner ByteDance, Tesla, Spotify, Shopify, Pinterest, Samsung, Palantir, Nvidia, Dropbox, Instacart, DoorDash, Anthropic and OpenAI.
The hundreds of organizations that lobbied on AI last year ran the gamut from Big Tech and AI startups to pharmaceuticals, insurance, finance, academia, telecommunications and more. Until 2017, the number of organizations that reported AI lobbying stayed in the single digits, per the analysis, but the practice has grown slowly but surely in the years since, exploding in 2023.
More than 330 organizations that lobbied on AI last year had not done the same in 2022. The data showed a range of industries as new entrants to AI lobbying: Chip companies like AMD and TSMC, venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz, biopharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca, conglomerates like Disney and AI training data companies like Appen.
Organizations that reported lobbying on AI issues last year also typically lobby the government on a range of other issues. In total, they reported spending a total of more than $957 million lobbying the federal government in 2023 on issues including, but not limited to, AI, according to OpenSecrets.
In October, President Biden issued an executive order on AI, the U.S. government’s first action of its kind, requiring new safety assessments, equity and civil rights guidance and research on AI’s impact on the labor market. The order tasked the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop guidelines for evaluating certain AI models, including testing environments for them, and be partly in charge of developing “consensus-based standards” for AI.
After the executive order’s unveiling, a frenzy of lawmakers, industry groups, civil rights organizations, labor unions and others began digging into the 111-page document and making note of the priorities, specific deadlines and, in their eyes, the wide-ranging implications of the landmark action.
One core debate has centered on the question of AI fairness. Many civil society leaders told CNBC in November that the order does not go far enough to recognize and address real-world harms that stem from AI models — especially those affecting marginalized communities. But they said it’s a meaningful step along the path.
Since December, NIST has been collecting public comments from businesses and individuals about how best to shape these rules, with plans to end the public comment period after Friday, February 2. In its Request for Information, the Institute specifically asked responders to weigh in on developing responsible AI standards, AI red-teaming, managing the risks of generative AI and helping to reduce the risk of “synthetic content” (i.e., misinformation and deepfakes).
— CNBC’s Mary Catherine Wellons and Megan Cassella contributed reporting.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Snowflake Summit in San Francisco on June 2, 2025.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images
OpenAI has been awarded a $200 million contract to provide the U.S. Defense Department with artificial intelligence tools.
The department announced the one-year contract on Monday, months after OpenAI said it would collaborate with defense technology startup Anduril to deploy advanced AI systems for “national security missions.”
“Under this award, the performer will develop prototype frontier AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges in both warfighting and enterprise domains,” the Defense Department said. It’s the first contract with OpenAI listed on the Department of Defense’s website.
Anduril received a $100 million defense contract in December. Weeks earlier, OpenAI rival Anthropic said it would work with Palantir and Amazon to supply its AI models to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO, said in a discussion with OpenAI board member and former National Security Agency leader Paul Nakasone at a Vanderbilt University event in April that “we have to and are proud to and really want to engage in national security areas.”
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Defense Department specified that the contract is with OpenAI Public Sector LLC, and that the work will mostly occur in the National Capital Region, which encompasses Washington, D.C., and several nearby counties in Maryland and Virginia.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to build additional computing power in the U.S. In January, Altman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House to announce the $500 billion Stargate project to build AI infrastructure in the U.S.
The new contract will represent a small portion of revenue at OpenAI, which is generating over $10 billion in annualized sales. In March, the company announced a $40 billion financing round at a $300 billion valuation.
In April, Microsoft, which supplies cloud infrastructure to OpenAI, said the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency has authorized the use of the Azure OpenAI service with secret classified information.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is shown on its launch pad carrying Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet network satellites as the vehicle is prepared for launch at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., April 28, 2025.
Steve Nesius | Reuters
United Launch Alliance on Monday was forced to delay the second flight carrying a batch of Amazon‘s Project Kuiper internet satellites because of a problem with the rocket booster.
With roughly 30 minutes left in the countdown, ULA announced it was scrubbing the launch due to an issue with “an elevated purge temperature” within its Atlas V rocket’s booster engine. The company said it will provide a new launch date at a later point.
“Possible issue with a GN2 purge line that cannot be resolved inside the count,” ULA CEO Tory Bruno said in a post on Bluesky. “We will need to stand down for today. We’ll sort it and be back.”
The launch from Florida’s Space Coast had been set for last Friday, but was rescheduled to Monday at 1:25 p.m. ET due to inclement weather.
Amazon in April successfully sent up 27 Kuiper internet satellites into low Earth orbit, a region of space that’s within 1,200 miles of the Earth’s surface. The second voyage will send “another 27 satellites into orbit, bringing our total constellation size to 54 satellites,” Amazon said in a blog post.
Kuiper is the latest entrant in the burgeoning satellite internet industry, which aims to beam high-speed internet to the ground from orbit. The industry is currently dominated by Elon Musk’s Space X, which operates Starlink. Other competitors include SoftBank-backed OneWeb and Viasat.
Amazon is targeting a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites. The company has to meet a Federal Communications Commission deadline to launch half of its total constellation, or 1,618 satellites, by July 2026.
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