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

Business Insider reports that Chris Larsen, a crypto billionaire, has spent tens of millions of dollars in this year's midterm elections. According to the article, the money advocates for clean energy and AI regulation, and is intended to take on the GOP. Business Insider quotes Larsen saying there is "an AI arms race that's completely out of control."

The article reports that Larsen holds "indirect" stakes in OpenAI and Anthropic. Both companies are named in the piece in connection with those holdings, which the article describes as indirect rather than direct. The article gives the amounts only as "tens of millions" of dollars.

Larsen is identified in the article as a crypto billionaire, and the piece links his assessment of AI development to his political spending. It reports his view that the current situation amounts to "an AI arms race that's completely out of control," a phrase the article attributes to him directly. The article also reports that his midterm spending is directed partly at the GOP and partly at clean energy advocacy and AI regulation, and it characterises the AI regulation push and the clean energy push as running alongside one another within the same spending effort.