The AI industry studied crypto's political playbook closely. It raised the money, built the super PAC network, and picked its races. What it has not managed to copy, however, is the result.

Leading the Future, the AI-focused super PAC network launched in 2025, has spent heavily through the 2026 election cycle. Yet it still lacks the kind of signature win that made crypto's Fairshake a name every lawmaker learned to respect.

Big Money, Muted Message

The financial firepower was never the problem. Leading the Future started with a fund of more than $100 million, a figure that later climbed toward approximately $140 million — roughly level with Fairshake's 2024 cycle total of about $131 million. The network counts OpenAI President Greg Brockman and venture capitalists from Andreessen Horowitz among its supporters.

Super PACs operate under rules that permit unlimited fundraising from individuals and companies but bar direct contributions to candidates and coordination with their campaigns — a structure that makes their influence depend heavily on the races they pick and the messages they run.

The goal was simple enough: back candidates who favor a lighter touch on AI regulation, and make life harder for those pushing strict rules. By late September 2026, Leading the Future and its affiliate groups had approximately $55.7 million. Most of that money went into primary elections, and much of it favored Democrats running in safe seats. Those races delivered wins: the network posted roughly 90% success rates in less competitive districts. In districts where one party's advantage makes the general election uncompetitive, the primary is often the decisive contest, which makes win rates there a less demanding test than prevailing in a genuinely competitive race.

The NY-12 Problem

The race that defined the cycle for AI money was the June 2026 primary in New York's 12th congressional district. Spending tied to Leading the Future exceeded $8 million in that contest, while counter-spending topped $18 million. New York Assemblymember Alex Bores lost by roughly 4 points to Micah Lasher.

The outcome did little to establish the AI lobby as a force candidates must fear. Instead, it put the industry's internal divisions on public display.

That split matters. The AI sector is not a unified. A pro-innovation faction and a pro-safety faction are effectively fighting over the same policy terrain, and both have deep pockets. The rivalry has also pushed Leading the Future toward a more cautious approach on negative campaigning, which removes one of the sharpest tools in the super PAC kit.

How Crypto Did It Differently

Fairshake, by contrast, has continued spending hard through the 2026 midterms, reporting more than $120 million in cash on hand. It has also made initial commitments of $6 million or more to candidates who support the Clarity Act, the market structure legislation the crypto industry has prioritized, which would divide federal oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

That is the contrast in a nutshell. Crypto tied its spending to a specific bill and a specific set of votes. AI money, by comparison, has been spread across safe seats without a comparable rallying point.

Combined spending from crypto and AI super PACs exceeded $127 million across more than 100 primary contests, with approximately 90% of supported candidates advancing.

What It Means for AI Policy and Its Backers

The larger risk may be the industry's internal fight. As long as the pro-innovation and pro-safety camps keep spending against each other, neither side can credibly threaten lawmakers with a unified response. Candidates who back stricter AI rules can count on friendly money showing up from within the industry itself.

Concerns about whether the funding can be sustained, and whether the strategy actually works, are already rising as the cycle heads into the midterms. The November 2026 general elections are the next stage where both playbooks will be measured — Fairshake backing candidates aligned with the Clarity Act, and Leading the Future still searching for the defining contest that would give its spending comparable weight.

Source: CryptoBriefing — AI super PAC's strategy fails to replicate crypto's election success