OpenAI Employees Donate Over $215,000 to AI Regulation Super PAC

OpenAI employees have donated more than $215,000 to Guardrails Alliance, a super PAC that advocates stricter regulations on frontier AI labs, Wired reported. Seven current employees and one former employee made the contributions. The largest gift came from research engineer Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, who joined OpenAI in 2022 and gave $200,000.

Five other current employees each contributed $5,000 or $3,000, while former research manager David Farhi, who left after seven years last summer, donated $3,000. Guardrails Alliance launched last month with $5 million in initial funding and seeks to raise $15 million this election cycle.

It aims to counter Leading the Future, a pro-AI super PAC that received more than $100 million from technology leaders including Brockman and his wife Anna, who committed $50 million.

Leading the Future launched last summer and spent heavily to defeat New York state assembly member Alex Bores, author of the state's AI safety law, in a primary last month. OpenAI has stated that Brockman's involvement with the group is personal. Guardrails Alliance cofounder Shaunna Thomas said the organization will not match Leading the Future dollar for dollar but will follow it into additional races.

The group plans to support Democrats in California's 34th congressional district in 2026. Public First Action, backed by $20 million from Anthropic, has also opposed Leading the Future. The New York 12th congressional district race drew $27 million in spending from both pro-industry and pro-safeguard groups.

Guardrails Alliance will disclose additional donors, including former Andreessen Horowitz partner John O’Farrell, in its filing due Wednesday night.