anthropic and openai spent $27m on a proxy war — and both lost
ai giants spent a record $27.41m on ny’s alex bores after his ai safety bill drew fire. the draw signals massive cash won't easily buy deregulation or safety.
a record $27.41m was spent in the ny-12 primary targeting alex bores, the former tech employee who authored the raise act, after openai-backed 'leading the future' ads attacked him. anthropic-aligned groups poured in $19.26m to defend bores, outspending the $8.15m deregulatory effort, but he narrowly lost to micah lashar 35% to 39.1%. despite the loss, bores outperformed rivals like jfk grandson jack schlossberg, validating ai policy as a potent mobilizing issue. this race serves as the first major bellwether for whether billions in ai industry cash can sway upcoming midterm races on regulation.