Leading the Future

On August 15, 2025, Leading the Future registered with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) as an independent expenditure-only super PAC, with committee ID C00916114 and a registered address in Henderson, Nevada.⁠[1][2]

On August 22, 2025, A16Z Capital Management, part of Andreessen Horowitz, contributed $25 million to the committee, which the filing attributed by partnership to co-founders Marc AndreessenMarc AndreessenMarc Andreessen is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist, a co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While in college he helped develop the graphical web browser Mosaic, then co-founded Netscape and Loudcloud (later renamed Opsware), and has long served as a director of Meta; he has also published essays such as “Why Software Is Eating the World.”Open the full entry and Benjamin Horowitz at $12.5 million each; on the same day, the AI search company Perplexity contributed $100,000.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3][3][3]

On August 25, 2025, Leading the Future debuted as a super PAC network with $100 million put toward the effort, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Greg Brockman, SV Angel’s Ron Conway, 8VC’s Joe Lonsdale, and Perplexity. It planned to use campaign donations, state-level PACs, a 501(c)(4) arm, and digital ads to advocate for pro-AI policies, backing both Democratic and Republican candidates while opposing candidates seen as hostile to the industry, and to begin operations in four states: New York, California, Illinois, and Ohio.⁠[4][4][4][4][5][5]

The network is led by Zac Moffatt and Josh Vlasto. Moffatt previously served as digital director for Mitt Romney’s campaign and is CEO of the conservative consulting firm Targeted Victory; Vlasto is a spokesman and media strategist for Fairshake, a pro-crypto super PAC, and has worked for Chuck Schumer and Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoAndrew Cuomo is an American Democratic politician who served as the 56th Governor of New York from 2011 to 2021, having previously served as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1997–2001) and New York Attorney General. In August 2021, an independent investigation by the New York State Attorney General’s Office found that he had sexually harassed multiple women; he denied touching anyone inappropriately and then announced his resignation. In 2025 he ran for mayor of New York City, losing to Zohran Mamdani in both the Democratic primary and the general election.Open the full entry. The two argued that there is a “vast force out there” looking to slow down AI deployment and “erect a patchwork of regulation,” and that Leading the Future would be the counterforce. The group hopes to replicate Fairshake’s success.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

On September 12, 2025, Greg Brockman and his spouse each contributed $12.5 million to the committee, for a total of $25 million; the filing listed Brockman’s employer and occupation as OpenAI, president and co-founder.⁠[3][3][3]

On October 9, 2025, the committee donated $500,000 to its advocacy arm, Build American AI.⁠[3][3][6]

In late 2025, Leading the Future released ads attacking New York State Assemblymember Alex BoresAlex BoresAlex Bores is an American Democratic politician, a member of the New York State Assembly, and a former software engineer. He sponsored New York’s frontier AI safety law, the RAISE Act, in the state Assembly; while running in 2026 for the House seat in New York’s 12th congressional district, he became the first target of Leading the Future, an AI industry super PAC, and lost the Democratic primary that June.Open the full entry, who was running for the House in New York’s 12th congressional district and advocated legislative regulation of AI, making him the group’s first political target. By March 2026, its ads also accused Bores of having made money building technology for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); Bores responded that he had quit Palantir in 2019 specifically over its work with ICE, and said the group had committed to spending at least $10 million against him.⁠[7][8][9][8][9][8][8][8]

The committee itself does not make independent expenditures directly, but transfers funds to affiliated super PACs: on December 15, 2025, and February 24, May 19, and June 8, 2026, it made four transfers of $5 million each to both American Mission and Think Big; on March 4, 2026, it also contributed $3 million to the state-level committee American Mission Florida. As of June 30, 2026, the FEC page listed its own independent expenditures as $0.⁠[3][3][3][3][10][10][10][10][11][11][11][11][1]

On January 30, 2026, the committee filed its 2025 year-end report, reporting $50,310,579.36 in receipts from August 15 to December 31, 2025, and $39,271,171.77 in cash on hand at year-end. The group separately said that, together with its affiliated super PACs and nonprofit advocacy organization, the network as a whole raised $125 million in the second half of 2025 and entered 2026 with $70 million in cash; its main donors included Brockman, Joe Lonsdale, Ron Conway, Andreessen Horowitz, and Perplexity. The affiliated super PAC American Mission also received a $250,000 contribution from Lonsdale Enterprises in that period.⁠[3][3][6][6][6]

On February 11, 2026, A16Z Capital Management contributed another $25 million to the committee, again attributed at $12.5 million each to Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz. In the first quarter of 2026, the committee took in $25,225,222.23 in receipts.⁠[10][10][10][10]

On June 18, 2026, Guardrails AllianceGuardrails AllianceGuardrails Alliance is a US super PAC (independent expenditure-only) that supports legislative regulation of artificial intelligence, publicly launched by Shaunna Thomas and Leah Hunt-Hendrix in June 2026. It treats Leading the Future, a super PAC funded by the AI industry, as its main opponent, running ads in the 2026 midterm elections for candidates who favor regulation and opposing candidates backed by Leading the Future.Open the full entry, a super PAC backed by tech workers and labor unions that advocates AI legislation, publicly launched, explicitly treating Leading the Future as its opponent; OpenAI also sought to distance itself from Brockman’s donations, issuing a statement in June that his engagement had been “in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the company.” In the June 23 Democratic primary in New York’s 12th District, Bores lost to Micah C. Lasher, 37,637 votes to 41,940.⁠[12][12][12][12][13][14][14][14]

In the second quarter of 2026, the committee took in $252,422.51 in receipts and made $20,364,849.34 in disbursements. From its registration through June 30, 2026, it had total receipts of $75,788,224.10 and total disbursements of $44,755,780.65, with $31,032,443.45 in cash on hand at the end of the period.⁠[11][11][1][1][1]

Leading the Future had previously said that Brockman and his wife would give a total of $50 million, $25 million in 2025 and $25 million in 2026. News made public on October 1, 2026, showed that after donating the first $25 million, Brockman would not donate the rest; in a June Slack message to OpenAI employees, he wrote that he felt “terrible about the fact that LTF keeps reflecting on the company and become so much of a distraction for people here,” and said there were “no plans to donate more at this time.” Representatives for Leading the Future and for Brockman both declined to comment; Guardrails Alliance said pressure from inside and outside OpenAI had brought about the reversal.⁠[13][15][13][13][15][15][15][15]

As of October 2026, Leading the Future had raised more than $140 million. On October 7, Guardrails Alliance announced it would spend $1.2 million opposing three House candidates backed by Leading the Future: Aaron Flint in Montana’s 1st District, Jay Feely in Arizona’s 1st District, and Jimmy Gomez in California’s 34th District.⁠[16][16][16][16][16]

Leading the Future says it supports federal regulation of AI, and that its goals are to advance a “positive, forward-looking” agenda for AI innovation in Washington and the states, to identify and support “pro-AI” candidates, and to build enduring political infrastructure. Its spokesperson Jesse Hunt said the group would back leaders committed to establishing a “clear, consistent national framework” to keep the United States a leader in AI innovation and win the race against China. At its launch, the group said it would oppose policies that stifle innovation and enable China to gain global AI superiority, as well as those who support them.⁠[16][17][17][17][7][7][5]

Leading the Future: Official website: https://www.leadingthefuture.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[17]

X: Public account: https://x.com/LeadingFutureAI (opens in a new window)⁠[17]