AI Labs Spend $1 Million to Back Senator Mike Rounds
Political action committees and employees from major AI firms have poured nearly $1 million into Senator Mike Rounds’s reelection campaign to secure a crucial industry ally in Congress.
Major super PACs and employees representing prominent AI developers and venture capital firms have directed nearly $1 million toward the South Dakota Senate race of incumbent Republican Mike Rounds. This influx of capital includes approximately $600,000 from outside groups, primarily the super PAC Defend American Jobs, which receives funding from a political action committee backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Additionally, Rounds has received roughly $215,000 directly from employees and PACs tied to AI labs and tech giants, including Anthropic, Google, and Microsoft.
The financial push is part of a broader industry effort to cultivate allies in Washington as lawmakers debate AI regulation. Recently, the super PAC Leading the Future—funded by OpenAI president Greg Brockman alongside investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz—announced a $2 million commitment to support several Senate Republicans, including Rounds, who favor the AI and cryptocurrency sectors. Currently, Rounds has raised more money from these tech-aligned groups than from donors within his own state of South Dakota, where he faces independent candidate Brian Beng following the withdrawal of Democratic candidate Julian Beaudion.
The heavy spending comes as local communities grapple with the physical footprint of AI. In South Dakota, the state legislature recently passed legislation requiring hyperscale data centers to cover a larger share of their water and energy costs. State lawmakers also rejected tax breaks for data center hardware and software, which halted a planned project by Applied Digital. While Rounds has publicly supported restrictions on data centers, his senior aide, Robert Skjonsberg, is a registered lobbyist for Meta, highlighting the complex ties between local policy and national tech interests.
For AI practitioners and developers, these campaign contributions signal a strategic shift toward securing political defense mechanisms. As public anxiety grows—highlighted by a Gallup poll showing that 70 percent of Americans oppose data center developments due to resource strain—the industry is actively spending to prevent restrictive federal regulations. Securing sympathetic lawmakers like Rounds ensures that future legislative frameworks governing compute limits, data center resources, and safety standards remain favorable to tech deployment.
This is our own summary of reporting by WIRED AI
