OpenAI, Anthropic boost lobbying as legacy tech, defense spending slips

OpenAI and Anthropic have pushed federal lobbying spending to record levels in the second quarter of 2026, as the AI ​​industry pours millions into influencing Washington ahead of midterm elections and highly anticipated IPOs.

The two leading AI developers together spent $3.17 million in the quarter, according to federal lobbying efforts; This was up 23% from the first three months of the year.

Anthropic spent $1.97 million from April through June, up 26% from the first quarter. OpenAI spent $1.2 million, up nearly 18%. Companies reported that they were lobbying on issues such as cybersecurity, copyright, cloud computing and defense procurement.

Tracking lobbying spending, which companies must report to Congress on a quarterly basis, is one way to measure which companies and industries are most active in influencing the federal government. Companies involved in shaping legislation or regulations often increase their spending.

Established tech and defense companies still spend much more overall, but OpenAI and Anthropic are closing the gap on some of Washington’s largest corporate lobbying operations.

Anthropic, for example, spent more money on lobbying. Nvidia for a quarter and almost matched Oracle’s Total $2 million. OpenAI spent $1.25 million, close to Nvidia’s $50,000.

Both AI companies increased their spending sharply starting in the second quarter of last year: Anthropic’s spending more than doubled, while OpenAI nearly doubled.

CNBC analysis of five “Fabulous 7” tech companies – Meta, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia And Tesla’s – found that they spent a total of $21.25 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter, little changed from $21.27 million in the first quarter.

Meta remained the top spender in the second quarter at $5.99 million, but lobbying spending was down 15% from the first quarter of this year. Amazon’s spending remained virtually unchanged at $4.36 million.

Google and Microsoft moved in the opposite direction. While Google increased its spending by 25% to $3.57 million compared to the last quarter, Microsoft increased its total spending by approximately 13% to $2.69 million.

These companies increased their lobbying spending by 7.7 percent compared to the second quarter of 2025 as technology remains at the forefront on Capitol Hill. They reported that they carried out lobbying activities on issues such as trade, China, taxes and export controls in the last quarter.

Large defense contractors, another sector that loves technology and has a habit of making big expenses, reduced their total expenditures compared to the previous quarter.

The eight largest publicly traded U.S.-based defense contractors, most recently ranked by General Services Administration’s fiscal 2024 DoD contract obligations SAM.gov Top 100 Contractors reportspent $19.68 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter; this was down 3.3% from $20.36 million in the first quarter.

LockheedMartin Led the group with $4.18 million, followed by RTX $3.86 million and General Dynamic $3.42 million.

RTX reduced its spending by $600,000; This was the largest decline in dollar terms from the first quarter to the second quarter among defense companies studied by CNBC. L3Harris reported the largest percentage decrease, reducing spending by nearly 45% to $530,000. Huntington Ingalls, Northrop Grumman And leidos also recorded double-digit declines.

Boeing’s The company recorded the largest spending increase among the eight companies, increasing its spending by 13% to $2.77 million.