# The spectacular failure of the first AI Super PAC

> Source: <https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/the-spectacular-failure-of-the-first>
> Published: 2026-06-22 10:03:29+00:00

# The spectacular failure of the first AI Super PAC

### The crypto playbook doesn't work for AI

Last August, a press release [announced the formation of a new $100 million super PAC](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ai-industry-launches-leading-the-future-to-drive-us-ai-leadership-economic-growth-national-security-and-innovation-302537548.html), Leading the Future.

The group was funded by OpenAI President Greg Brockman and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and, according to its press release, represented “a coalition of leading AI companies and innovators” aiming to “support candidates aligned with the pro-AI agenda and ensure America leads the world in AI innovation and oppose those that do not.”[1](#footnote-1)

Leading the Future was [modeled on Fairshake](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/08/26/silicon-valley-ai-super-pac/), an extremely successful cryptocurrency PAC that Andreessen Horowitz had invested in during the previous election cycle. Fairshake’s theory of political pressure was simple: If you were against cryptocurrency, they would run primary and general election ads against you or for your opponents.

And it worked. Fairshake [spent $40 million](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/07/sherrod-brown-ohio-comeback-crypto-00909209#:~:text=Fairshake%2Daffiliated%20PACs%20later%20went%20on%20to%20plow%20more%20than%20%2440%20million%20into%20an%20effort%20to%20defeat%20Brown%20in%202024) to defeat former Sen. Sherrod Brown’s 2024 reelection bid, another [$10 million in a successful effort](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/01/crypto-super-pac-katie-porter-attack-ads) to defeat Senate candidate Katie Porter, and [$2 million against](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/26/crypto-pac-house-senate-elections.html#:~:text=Yet%20crypto%E2%80%99s%20Fairshake%20PAC%20also%20got%20into%20the%20race%20and%20spent%20%242%20million%20to%20air%20an%20ad%20critical%20of%20Bowman.) former Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York. In all three of those contests, Fairshake got its way and probably made a lot of other candidates extremely hesitant to put forward anti-crypto regulation as a result.

The plan with LTF was to repeat the successful experiment, this time to go after candidates bent on regulating AI. But it’s taken less than a year for that plan to crash and burn spectacularly.

AI isn’t crypto. Fairshake’s playbook worked because crypto is a low-salience issue where most voters aren’t paying attention.

AI is completely different: Americans are beginning to care *intensely* and likely will care more and more as the [technology spreads through various sectors](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/americans-want-artisanal-code) of the economy. LTF was a bet against AI’s own importance, placed by many of the people building the technology. And it’s a bet they’re losing.

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