WASHINGTON, D.C. — Major artificial intelligence companies have donated more than $2 million since 2025 to political organizations supporting Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, even as those same officials investigate and sue AI firms over child safety, deceptive practices and other emerging harms.
According to IRS disclosures reviewed by Sludge, Google gave $250,000 in the second quarter of 2026 to both the Democratic Attorneys General Association and Republican Attorneys General Association. Meta contributed $200,000 to each, while Amazon gave $125,000 to each. Anthropic donated $250,000 to the Republican group in May.
Elon Musk’s xAI also gave $25,000 to the Democratic group, despite simultaneously fighting California Attorney General Rob Bonta in court over an AI transparency law. Bonta’s office is separately investigating xAI’s Grok chatbot over the generation and distribution of nonconsensual sexualized deepfakes.
The donations come as scrutiny of the industry intensifies across party lines. In August 2025, 44 attorneys general warned OpenAI, Meta, Google, xAI and other companies about “grave concerns” involving children’s interactions with AI chatbots.
The contributions do not establish that any attorney general altered an investigation or enforcement decision. But they illustrate the increasingly complicated relationship between powerful AI companies and state officials who are becoming some of the industry’s most important regulators.
The stakes are particularly high because states are moving faster than Congress in many areas of AI oversight, including child safety, deepfakes, privacy and transparency. That gives attorneys general significant authority over companies that are simultaneously helping finance the political organizations supporting their elections.
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