Nvidia Led AI Companies in Washington Lobbying This Summer
Nvidia spent $2.2 million on federal lobbying from July to September, more than it had spent in any earlier quarter. That is according to The Verge, which reported the figures on October 22, 2026.
Lobbying means paying people to speak with lawmakers and government officials on a company's behalf. It is a normal part of business in Washington, and companies must report what they spend.
Anthropic spent $2.1 million in the same three months, also its highest quarter so far. OpenAI spent $1.5 million. Nvidia came first of the three, Anthropic second, and OpenAI third.
The Nvidia figure appears in the company's quarterly filing under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. The filing is publicly available on lda.gov. Each quarterly report lists what a company spent in one calendar quarter. The totals show how much was spent. They do not say which issues, bills or agencies were involved.
The summer numbers followed a strong spring. CNBC reported on July 21, 2026 that OpenAI and Anthropic together spent $3.17 million on federal lobbying in the second quarter. That was up 23% from the first quarter, and a record for the two firms combined.
Anthropic's own second-quarter total was $1.97 million. That was its highest quarterly total since it started lobbying in March 2024, according to Yahoo Finance reporting from July 27. Its third-quarter figure of $2.1 million is higher still, so its quarterly spending has kept climbing.
Full-year totals tell a somewhat different story. OpenSecrets lists NVIDIA Corp's 2026 reported lobbying total at $2,540,000. OpenAI's total for the year was $2,220,000.
The broader context here is that these figures show how much the companies pay to engage with Washington. They do not show what that engagement achieves.
In my view, the more useful way to read these filings is as a pattern over time. Three companies whose products rely on advanced AI chips and the largest AI models now report their political spending in the same system used by older industries. They report it every quarter, so the trend is easy to follow. The next round of filings will show whether the second- and third-quarter increases continue, and whether the timing of the spending matches the policy questions each company says matter most to its work.
