Leading the Future
Americal political lobby focused on artificial intelligence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leading the Future is an American super PAC network focused on lobbying for policies friendly to the artificial intelligence industry. It was launched in 2025 with over $100 million from industry stakeholders including Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.[1][2][3][4] The launch was preceded by talks between Collin McCune, head of government affairs at Andreessen Horowitz, and Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI.[1] Among the members of the network are the American Mission PAC, which supported Chris Gober, and the Think Big PAC, which targeted Alex Bores.[5]
| Formation | August 15, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Type | Super PAC |
| Registration no. | C00916114 |
| Headquarters | Henderson, Nevada |
Region served | United States |
Key people |
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| Website | www |
Leading the Future is affiliated with the nonprofit Build American AI, which Axios describes as a dark money advocacy "offshoot" operating alongside the super PAC.[6] NBC News states that the network’s efforts are modeled after the pro-cryptocurrency group Fairshake. Leading the Future is led by Zac Moffatt and Josh Vlasto, the latter of whom previously served as an advisor to Fairshake.[4] In response to the creation of Leading the Future, former members of Congress Brad Carson and Chris Stewart co-founded the super PAC network Public First, aiming to counter the group’s influence.[7]
In April 2026, an investigation by Model Republic linked Leading the Future to The Wire By Acutus, an automated news website that allegedly used AI agents posing as human journalists to solicit interviews. The site's content was found to closely mirror the PAC's deregulatory policy goals while targeting researchers and advocates skeptical of rapid AI development.[8]
In May 2026, Wired revealed that Build American AI used a "dark money" campaign to pay TikTok and Instagram influencers $5,000 per video to promote scripted narratives framing Chinese AI as a "national security threat." According to internal documents and staff at the marketing agency managing the project, the campaign's explicit goal was to "subtly shift public debate" toward the deregulation of AI industries while intentionally avoiding technical discussions regarding AI quality or safety.[9]
During the 2026 primary season Leading the Future went on to endorse several candidates in both Democratic and Republican races with several of them going on to win.[10][11][12]
