AI super PACs pour nearly a million dollars into a sleepy South Dakota Senate race
The South Dakota Senate contest is not competitive. Polls show incumbent Mike Rounds leading independent Brian Beng by a wide margin after Democrat Julian Beaudion dropped out last month. That has not stopped super PACs backed by AI labs and venture capital firms from funneling close to a million dollars into the race. FEC filings show Rounds has collected roughly 600 thousand dollars in outside spending this cycle, the vast bulk of it from Defend American Jobs, a super PAC financed by the Andreessen Horowitz super PAC. Another 215 thousand dollars came directly from employees and super PACs of AI labs — led by Anthropic — as well as from Google and Microsoft. The result: Rounds has raised more money from technology interests than from donors in the state he represents.
A rare ally on Capitol Hill
The spending reflects a new push by AI labs to deploy massive "war chests" to shape legislation on contested issues, from model regulation to the data centers that power them. Congressional aides say industry leaders view Rounds as a top supporter, a position that could prove critical in the next Congress when AI regulation is expected to reach the top of the agenda. It also underscores the industry's ally shortage: lawmakers are advancing a wave of bills in response to public anxiety over AI safety, and consistent industry backers have become scarce.
New PAC announces two million dollars more
On Thursday the super PAC Leading the Future, backed in part by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and investors Ben Horowitz and Marc Andreessen, said it will spend two million dollars on a slate of Republican senators who support the AI and crypto industries. Rounds is on the list. The new money adds to what is already in play and signals the labs are not settling for one-off contributions but are building long-term influence infrastructure.
Data centers: the local fight behind the big money
In South Dakota the issue is already concrete. The state legislature earlier this year passed a law requiring hyperscalers — companies operating cloud infrastructure at massive scale — to shoulder a larger share of water and energy costs for data centers. Lawmakers had previously voted down tax breaks for the equipment and software those centers need, a move that halted a planned project by Applied Digital, a firm that designs and builds data centers. Rounds ultimately backed the restrictions even though his senior adviser and former chief of staff, Robert Skjonsberg, is registered as a lobbyist for Meta on matters before the state legislature. Meta operates a network of data centers, though it currently has none in South Dakota. Rounds's office told Politico that counsel consulted the Senate Ethics Committee and was advised there is no conflict of interest.
The American public isn't buying the narrative
Opposition to data centers cuts across party lines. A recent Gallup poll found seven in ten Americans oppose data center development because of their enormous water and energy consumption — costs that local communities often end up subsidizing. While AI labs pour money into a "safe" race in South Dakota, the ground makes clear that the real battle over AI infrastructure is being fought at the level of local consumption, not just in Washington.