How Silicon Valley brought its AI fight to Washington
Tech companies are taking an increasingly active role in influencing legislation
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FOR most of the last decade, Silicon Valley treated Washington as an afterthought – a place to send lobbyists when a subpoena arrived, not a location to build strategy around.
That posture has collapsed. In 2026, the arguments happening inside artificial intelligence labs and venture firms – speed versus safety, open models versus closed ones, how much deference the industry deserves – are no longer confined to Sand Hill Road.
They are being fought, on the floor of the US Congress, in the West Wing and in state capitals across the country.
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