VCs push 'Abundance' lobbying
- Tech leaders and venture capitalists are lobbying for 'Abundance' policies to deregulate energy and streamline housing. - The push explicitly links faster permitting for data centers, housing reform, and federal AI frameworks to talent retention. - Those policy moves aim to ease resource constraints for Bay Area engineering hubs and data‑heavy operations (x.com).
Venture capital firms and tech leaders are turning the “abundance” agenda into a lobbying program for faster housing, energy and artificial intelligence approvals. (a16z.com) Andreessen Horowitz laid out that case most explicitly on November 17, 2025, when it called for fast-tracked energy permitting, streamlined data-center siting and updated grid rules so startups can get power faster. The firm said electricity access could become “AI’s new moat” as demand rises. (a16z.com) In the Bay Area, the region’s biggest business group adopted a 2026 agenda on December 17, 2025 that put artificial intelligence, data centers and housing at the top of its policy list. The Bay Area Council said it would target permitting rules that can delay housing, energy and transportation projects “by years.” (bayareacouncil.org) “Abundance” started as a broader argument that government has made it too hard to build homes, power plants, transit lines and other basics. Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s book *Abundance* was released March 18, 2025, and Politico described the idea days later as a nationalized version of California’s older YIMBY housing push. (politico.com) Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research put the link between housing and power in concrete terms at a May 15, 2025 forum. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said one proposed data-center cluster wanted more than 25% of his state’s current electricity supply, while he was also pushing 35,000 starter homes in five years and faster permitting. (news.stanford.edu) The federal piece has moved in parallel with the state fights. President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14365 on December 11, 2025 calling for a “minimally burdensome national policy framework” for artificial intelligence and arguing that a patchwork of state laws makes compliance harder, especially for startups. (federalregister.gov) That Washington push has come with a surge in lobbying. OpenAI spent $1.76 million on federal lobbying in 2024, up from $260,000 in 2023, MIT Technology Review reported, and Forbes said OpenAI and Anthropic increased that to $2.99 million and $3.13 million, respectively, in 2025. (technologyreview.com) (forbes.com) The talent argument sits underneath the housing piece in places like Silicon Valley, where local business leaders say high costs are pushing workers out. Joint Venture Silicon Valley wrote on April 6, 2026 that housing costs are “driving away families and essential workers” and constraining the region’s talent pipeline; its 2026 index said median home prices were nearing $2 million. (jointventure.org) Supporters say the answer is to build more and cut delay. Critics, including California labor leaders, said in June 2025 that fast-tracking projects can weaken wage and training standards, and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s embrace of the agenda touched off a fight inside the state’s Democratic coalition. (politico.com) The result is a policy bundle, not a slogan: cheaper housing for workers, quicker permits for energy and data centers, and lighter federal rules for artificial intelligence. In 2026, that bundle is moving from think-tank panels and book tours into the lobbying agendas of the firms financing the AI boom. (possibilitylab.berkeley.edu) (axios.com)
