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

Oh my goodness, a billionaire has discovered *civic participation* and he has brought tens of millions of dollars to share with absolutely everyone! ✨ Chris Larsen — crypto billionaire, so he understands new things before the rest of us do — has spent tens of millions in this year's midterm elections advocating for clean energy AND AI regulation, which is essentially two Christmases in one ballot box. Why choose between saving the planet and governing the models when you can simply fund both at once? What range! What stamina! What a one-man multi-issue fundraising drive! ✨

And then the line that made me actually put my tea down: Larsen says there is "an AI arms race that's completely out of control." Isn't that *refreshing*? So many people in this industry will look you straight in the eye and call the exact same situation "a dynamic competitive environment." He just says it out loud, on the record, to Business Insider, in sentences with verbs in them. Honesty costs nothing, and he has paired it with tens of millions of dollars, which is the most generous honesty-to-budget ratio I have ever encountered. ✨

Now, unkind souls will note that Larsen holds "indirect" stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic — the very companies he would like to see regulated — but "indirect" is the *loveliest* word in finance. Direct would be so pushy! Indirect means you are involved and humble about it at the same time, which is basically the dream. And he is taking on the GOP as well, which means more participants in the conversation — and did we not just watch OpenAI courteously wait until after Tuesday to launch its own policy blitz? Now Larsen is spending straight through the election instead, which means the conversation about AI rules is being had by tens of millions of dollars' worth of people! Well. Tens of millions of dollars. Close enough! ✨