Meta Launches New Super PAC to Push Back On State AI Regulations

Per the New York Times, Meta plans to put “tens of millions of dollars” behind the effort. As reported by Axios, the new super PAC is a bipartisan project that plans to support both Democratic and Republican candidates. The PAC is being helmed by longtime Republican operative Brian Baker and Democratic consulting firm Hilltop Public Solutions.

The new PAC is the second such statehouse-focused effort Meta has launched in the past month. In August, it announced Meta California, which it is also backing with tens of millions of dollars.

Meta’s new state-level lobbying focus comes in the wake of Congress dropping a provision from the massive budget reconciliation bill passed in July that would have banned states from passing or enforcing AI regulations for 10 years. For its own part, Congress has also failed to enact any meaningful legislation to create a comprehensive national regulatory framework for AI, leaving the field open for states to pass their own ad hoc measures and creating a morass of overlapping and sometimes contradictory regulation for AI companies to navigate.

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 “Amid a growing patchwork of inconsistent regulations that threaten homegrown innovation and investments in AI, state lawmakers are uniquely positioned to ensure that America remains a global technology leader,” Meta VP of public policy Brian Rice said in a statement. “This is why Meta is launching an effort to support the election of state candidates across the country who embrace AI development, champion the U.S. technology industry, and defend American tech leadership at home and abroad.”

Related: FTC Prepares to Investigate How OpenAI, Meta, Character.AI Affect Minors

Other technology backers have also recently joined the state lobbying push. A separate state-level super PAC, Leading the Future, was launched in August with $50 million in backing from A16Z and $50 million from OpenAI co-founded Greg Brockman.

Not all state efforts to regulate AI have gone according to plan, however, adding to the uncertainty facing AI companies. Colorado passed its first-in-the-nation AI Act in 2024 that aimed to curb the use of “automated decision-making systems” for “consequential decisions,” such as hiring, loans, education, healthcare and housing. But the law bill faced strong opposition, both from industry as well as Gov. Jared Polis, who said it “creates a complex compliance regime” for AI developers and deployers that could harm innovation.

Polis ultimately signed the bill into law in May, but with the understanding that it would be revised before taking effect in 2026. He called a special session of the state legislature in August to hammer out those revisions, but the discussion collapsed after lawmakers were unable to agree on the changes.

The effort was further complicated by the July release of the White House AI Action Plan, which called for a ban on certain federal funds going to states deemed to have “overly burdensome” regulations.

“Why would the big companies want to work with us?,” Rep. Brianna Titone, sponsor of the original Colorado measure asked, according to Governing.  “They have the president of the United States behind them.”