Silicon Valley leaders are ramping up political and publishing moves around artificial intelligence, with a new pro-AI super PAC network and a revenue-sharing plan from Perplexity drawing industry attention. According to AdExchanger, recent developments span campaign funding, media partnerships and ongoing debates over data use and consent.
Silicon Valley backs AI-friendly super PAC network
Tech investors and executives have launched a super-PAC network called Leading the Future, with the goal of “identify[ing] and elevat[ing] candidates who support a bold, forward-looking approach to AI” and opposing “policies that stifle innovation,” per the organization’s press release cited by AdExchanger. The Wall Street Journal reports the network has already received more than $100 million in funding from backers including OpenAI president Greg Brockman and venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
AdExchanger notes that the group’s political strategists are described as bipartisan, pointing to Zac Moffatt, founder of Republican ad tech provider Targeted Victory, and Josh Vlasto, who previously worked for Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Andrew Cuomo. The network expects to align with policies associated with White House AI Czar David Sacks, according to AdExchanger’s roundup.
Context from recent political spending
AdExchanger compares the initiative to Fairshake, a crypto-focused network that spent almost $200 million in the 2024 election cycle, with the Washington Post reporting it propelled Trump to victory.
Perplexity offers revenue share to publishers
Perplexity is introducing a revenue-sharing program for publishers whose content is used by its generative AI technology, Bloomberg reports via AdExchanger. The company will set aside $42.5 million to distribute to participating publishers when they receive traffic from the Comet web browser, when their content appears in Comet’s generative AI search results and when their content is used by Comet’s AI assistant. Funding originates from Comet’s new subscription tier, which will also feature curated content from publisher partners.
The move follows criticism over content scraping practices. Earlier this month, Cloudflare criticized Perplexity for ignoring robots.txt and masking its crawler identity. Trade groups have also weighed in: IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur called out Perplexity for not engaging with the Tech Lab’s publisher working group.
Legal tensions are part of the backdrop. AdExchanger points to a copyright lawsuit brought by News Corp and reported threats of legal action from Forbes and Condé Nast over content use without permission.
