Political groups tied to the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industries have raked in tens of millions of dollars, according to new campaign finance reports, as they look to become major players in this year’s midterm elections.
The most prominent pro-crypto groups ended 2025 with nearly $194 million to spend, almost all of that with Fairshake, a group backed by Coinbase and other venture capitalists, new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show. A pro-AI group, Leading the Future, ended the year with $39 million in its campaign account.
The sizable war chests signal that these groups could wield significant influence in primaries and general elections in the 2026 elections to boost their preferred candidates from both parties, with eyes on influencing policy in Washington.
Pro-crypto groups established themselves as forces in the last election. Fairshake and two aligned groups, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, spent a whopping $290 million combined in 2024, according to campaign finance records.
Most notably, these groups spent heavily to help Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno take down Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, to oppose Democratic Rep. Katie Porter’s California Senate bid, and to boost Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego and Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin in their successful Senate bids.
Leading the Future is a new group looking to make an impact on this year’s elections. It pulled in more than $50 million from Aug. 15 through Dec. 31, receiving $12.5 million each from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, and venture capitalists Marc Andreesen and Benjamin Horowitz.
The new super PAC has frustrated some White House officials, since its donors includes some allies of President Donald Trump and the group is open to supporting candidates from both parties.
So far, Leading the Future and its allied groups have announced plans to spend in two primaries in open House seats. The group is opposing state Assemblyman Alex Bores, who sponsored AI safety legislation, in a New York City district to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler. And it is boosting attorney Chris Gober in a deep-red Texas House seat to replace retiring Republican Rep. Michael McCaul.
Meanwhile, a super PAC tied to President Donald Trump remains one the biggest players in the political arena heading into a midterm election year where control of the GOP-led House and Senate are at stake.
MAGA Inc., Trump’s main allied super PAC, closed the year with $304 million banked away. Most of its fundraising from the second half of 2025 was already disclosed in a filing earlier this month, and the organization raked in more than $112 million over the six-month period, with big checks from those with business in front of the administration or with family facing legal jeopardy.
While Trump won’t be on the ballot in 2026, and, despite his repeated musings, isn’t constitutionally eligible to run for president again, the super PAC’s cash will help the president continue to exert his influence in the GOP.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has continued to donate millions to conventional Republican groups as he’s appeared to patch his relationship up with Trump in recent months. Once a close Trump ally and White House adviser, Musk had a public break with Trump and even threatened to start a third party last year.
Musk gave $5 million checks to both the Senate Leadership Fund and Congressional Leadership Fund — the top super PACs aligned with the Senate and House GOP leadership — in December. And Musk also gave $2.9 million, including in-kind contributions, to America PAC, his own political group that spent more than a quarter-billion dollars last election cycle primarily to help Trump. While America PAC closed the year with little in its bank account, the staggering wealth of its main patron makes that number mean very little.
In the second half of 2025, Senate Leadership Fund raised almost $77 million, closing the year with $100 million banked away. Congressional Leadership Fund raised more than $38 million over that period and finished 2025 with $54.5 million in cash on hand.
Democratic dollars
On the Democratic side, House Majority PAC, the major outside group tasked with helping Democrats win control of the House, raised more than $48 million and closed the year with $46 million in cash on hand.
Senate Majority PAC, the group aligned with Senate Democratic leadership, had not yet filed its fundraising report by late Saturday evening.
United Democracy Project, a pro-Israel group that’s aligned with the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) raised more than $61 million from July through December and ended 2025 with almost $96 million banked away, the latest campaign finance reports show. The group wades into primaries on both sides of the aisle, but largely plays in Democratic contests.
The group is already involved in the upcoming special election in New Jersey’s solidly blue 11th Congressional District, where it’s attacking former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski.
While United Democracy Project received a massive $30 million check from AIPAC, its second-biggest contributor was GOP mega-donor Paul Singer. Donations from Singer and other prominent Republicans have been a point of contention for Democrats because of the group’s heavy involvement in their party’s primaries.
Democratic lawmakers are also facing new primary threats this election cycle amid the party’s generational and ideological divisions.
Leaders We Deserve, a group led by activist David Hogg, announced last year it would target Democrats in deep-blue districts who were “asleep-at-the-wheel” as part of a $20 million effort to back young candidates. The group raised more than $7.8 million in 2025, ending the year with nearly $2.3 million in its campaign account.
