As Washington debates major tech and AI policy changes, Big Tech’s lobbying is relentless

As Congress weighed a sweeping, decades-long ban on state regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) — a move heavily backed by Big Tech — the industry’s biggest players poured record-breaking sums into lobbying during the first half of 2025, according to an Issue One analysis of newly filed federal reports. Eight of the largest tech, AI, and social media companies spent a combined $36 million on federal lobbying during the first half of 2025 — an average of roughly $320,000 per day that Congress has been in session. 

In June, Big Tech tried to cash in on years of lobbying by pushing a provision in President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending bill that would have stripped states of the power to regulate AI and social media algorithms for the next 10 years. States faced a stark choice: abandon their regulatory authority or forfeit crucial broadband funding.

While the moratorium provision was ultimately stripped from the final legislation — thanks to pushback from civil society groups and key lawmakers — the episode underscored Big Tech’s escalating political muscle.

“Once again, we see tech giants spending vast sums to buy influence in Washington and drive an agenda that Americans on both sides of the aisle reject,” said Issue One Vice President of Advocacy Alix Fraser. “The tech industry has grown more audacious — even trying to ask Congress to stop states from regulating AI for a decade — while Congress does little to nothing to rein in the sector.”

Fraser continued: “The reality is that Big Tech companies are still spending tens of millions of dollars to curry favor with lawmakers and shape tech legislation. These efforts have allowed them to continue marketing products that use Americans’ personal information to engage in predatory surveillance practices, harm and kill children, and stoke division and hate. Congress has a responsibility to protect our democracy by standing up to Big Tech companies and passing commonsense safeguards that will finally hold them accountable.”

The $36 million figure includes spending by:

• Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube
• ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok
• Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram
• Microsoft
• Nvidia, one of the leading suppliers of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and software
• OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI tool ChatGPT
• Snap, the parent company of Snapchat
• X, formerly known as Twitter

Despite Congress blocking the decade-long moratorium, Trump is now preparing executive orders this week that will prohibit federal AI funds from going to states with restrictive AI laws. And since the start of his second term in the White House, Trump has also been unilaterally delaying the enactment of a law passed by Congress with bipartisan support requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or sever ties to the Chinese government — thrice extending the deadline for the company to divest from Chinese ownership.

The message from the past six months is clear: Big Tech’s lobbying dollars and political ambitions just continue to expand.

Read Issue One’s full analysis.