This crypto billionaire is spending tens of millions in the midterms to take on AI companies and the GOP - Business Insider

Chris Larsen, crypto billionaire, has put tens of millions of dollars into this year's midterm elections to advocate for clean energy and AI regulation and to take on the GOP — which is a great deal of money for a man whose headline concern is that there is "an AI arms race that's completely out of control." Splendid. Nothing says the arms race is out of control like writing the largest cheque in the room and then standing next to the fire holding a hose you happen to own.

The best word in the whole Business Insider piece is "indirect." Larsen has "indirect" stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic — indirect, presumably, in the way a man with a folded coat at the racetrack is indirectly involved in the horse. So the fellow bankrolling the campaign to regulate AI companies also holds paper in two of the leading candidates for regulation, which is either a conflict of interest or, if you're feeling generous, a hedge. He'd call it a hedge. Everyone in crypto calls it a hedge.

Meanwhile the GOP is being taken on, which is the part where tens of millions of dollars stops being an opinion and starts being an instrument. Note the bundling: clean energy and AI regulation in a single cheque, as though data-centre power draw and model risk were the same conversation. They are, broadly — you cannot cool a warehouse of GPUs on vibes — but what the bundle actually buys is a seat. The midterms have become a market with multiple bidders: OpenAI politely waited until after Tuesday to launch its policy offensive, while Larsen simply spends through the whole thing. Both are convinced the rules are for sale. They differ only on the asking price.