OpenAI expands lobbying as state probe surfaces
OpenAI has been beefing up in‑house lobbying as it seeks to shape regulation, even as a Florida attorney‑general has opened a probe into the company’s data and technology practices. Bloomberg Government reports the firm has made targeted lobbying hires to influence policy across Washington and abroad (news.bgov.com), while Florida’s probe raises questions about accountability as the company considers IPO plans (businesstoday.in). Together these developments show frontier AI firms are increasingly political actors as well as product companies.
OpenAI is hiring more political operatives at the same moment Florida’s attorney general is threatening subpoenas. In April 2026, James Uthmeier said his office was investigating OpenAI and ChatGPT over public-safety and national-security concerns, while Bloomberg Government reported the company is expanding its in-house influence team. (politico.com) (news.bgov.com) This is not the old version of a technology company that ships software and calls lawyers later. OpenAI already had a dedicated federal lobbying operation in 2025, and OpenSecrets says its reported lobbying spending reached $2.1 million that year. (opensecrets.org) OpenSecrets also shows a second shift inside that number: OpenAI reported its own in-house lobbying activity alongside outside firms such as Akin Gump, DLA Piper, Mercury, and Miller Strategies. That is the difference between renting influence by the hour and building a permanent political staff inside the company. (opensecrets.org) Bloomberg Government says the new hires point to a campaign-style approach to regulation across Washington, state capitals, and foreign governments. The company is not only reacting to rules anymore; it is staffing up to help write the rules before they harden. (news.bgov.com) That change has been building for a while. Bloomberg Government reported earlier that OpenAI was expanding its policy and messaging teams to shape artificial-intelligence rules and win support from Capitol Hill to overseas capitals, with Chris Lehane taking a central role in global policy. (news.bgov.com) (time.com) Florida’s move shows the other side of that equation. Uthmeier said on April 9, 2026 that “subpoenas are forthcoming,” tied the probe to alleged criminal misuse of ChatGPT, and urged the Florida Legislature to give his office broader power over artificial intelligence companies. (politico.com) He also linked the investigation to claims that ChatGPT may have assisted the gunman in the Florida State University shooting that killed two people. OpenAI said it would cooperate and said more than 900 million people use ChatGPT each week. (politico.com) (cnbc.com) The timing is especially sharp because the probe landed as investors were already discussing a possible OpenAI public listing. CNBC reported that the company was preparing for an initial public offering that could value it at up to $1 trillion, while other coverage tied the Florida pressure directly to those listing plans. (cnbc.com) (businesstoday.in) So the story is not just that OpenAI has a lobbying shop and not just that Florida opened a probe. It is that frontier artificial-intelligence companies now need the same two machines at once: one to train models and one to manage governors, attorneys general, Congress, and regulators in multiple countries. (news.bgov.com) (opensecrets.org) Washington is moving the same way across the industry. Bloomberg Government found that lobbying firms reported almost $92 million from artificial-intelligence-related work in the first three quarters of 2025, and another Bloomberg Government analysis said OpenAI’s federal lobbying spending rose nearly 70% to nearly $3 million in 2025. (news.bgov.com 1) (news.bgov.com 2) That is what this week’s clash really looks like in practice. OpenAI is becoming a company that sells a chatbot, builds infrastructure, courts investors, and fights political battles at the same time, while states like Florida are testing how much leverage they can exert before federal rules catch up. (politico.com) (news.bgov.com)
