Intercept Analysis: AI Super PACs Put Only 5 Percent of Direct Spending Into Contested General-Election Races

The Intercept reported on October 29, 2026, from its reading of FEC records and independent race ratings, that only 5 percent of the AI super PAC networks’ direct expenditures have gone to contested general-election races. The two networks, Leading the Future and Public First, put $50.7 million into the primaries, $21.3 million of it supporting or opposing a single congressional candidate, Alex Bores, in the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th Congressional District.

For the general election, the Intercept says Leading the Future had spent $7.4 million as of October 26, despite $34 million in cash on hand across its network, and that only 31 percent of that total went to competitive races, as measured by the analytics site FiftyPlusOne. Public First, a rival network launched months later to counter Leading the Future, had spent $1.1 million as of the morning of October 26. Its donors include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who gave $1 million, and Anthropic has given a nonprofit associated with Public First millions of dollars, according to the Intercept. Rick Claypool, a research director for the president’s office at Public Citizen, told the Intercept the companies “underestimated how much the public despises the data center buildout.”

The figures are the Intercept’s analysis of FEC data; the filings were not pulled for this entry, and the competitive-race split rests on FiftyPlusOne’s classification. Related entries: 2026-02-27–ai-super-pac-leading-the-future-targets-pro-regulation-midterms, 2026-03-03–ai-tech-pac-millions-block-alex-bores-congressional-race, 2026-09-16–leading-the-future-2-million-general-election-ads-four-gop-senate-candidates and 2026-03-12–ai-industry-super-pacs-flood-2026-midterms. The Anthropic details were checked by Mark in a non-Claude verification pass before this entry was written.