OpenAI Workers Are Bankrolling a Super PAC to Push Back Against Their Own Boss
Eight current and former OpenAI employees have quietly donated more than $215,000 to a political group that wants stricter rules on AI companies, setting up an unusual fight inside one of the world's most powerful tech firms.
Key points
- Eight current and former OpenAI employees donated more than $215,000 to the Guardrails Alliance super PAC, a political spending group that supports stricter AI rules, as of mid-2025.
- OpenAI research engineer Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe gave $200,000 of that total, making him one of the largest individual donors to the group.
- Guardrails Alliance launched in 2025 with $5 million in initial funding and aims to raise $15 million this election cycle.
- Its main opponent is Leading the Future, a rival super PAC backed with more than $100 million, including a $50 million commitment from OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife Anna.
- A separate super PAC called Public First Action, funded with $20 million from AI company Anthropic, is also working to promote AI safety rules in the 2026 elections.
A handful of ordinary OpenAI engineers have quietly taken on their own company's most senior figure, spending personal savings to fund a political group that wants governments to impose tighter rules on AI companies like the one that employs them.
The group is Guardrails Alliance, a super PAC, meaning a political organisation in the United States that can raise and spend unlimited sums to influence elections. It launched recently with $5 million, drawing support from tech workers, labour unions, and others. Wired AI first reported the employee donations.
The target is Leading the Future, a rival super PAC with far deeper pockets. It has raised more than $100 million, with OpenAI president Greg Brockman and his wife Anna personally committing $50 million. Its stated goal is opposing policies that would, in its words, "stifle innovation."
Given that Brockman took on expanded authority at OpenAI just this week, the fact that his own colleagues are funding a group designed to counter his political spending carries extra sting.
The biggest donation came from Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a research engineer at the company since 2022, who contributed $200,000. He spent four years working on ways to reduce the social harms AI can cause. "I've become concerned that all that research will have gone to waste if it doesn't translate to guardrails that hold private companies accountable," he said.
Gabriel Wu, a safety researcher at OpenAI, gave $5,000. Julie Steele and Jason Wolfe, two staff members who study AI alignment, which is the discipline of making AI systems behave as humans actually intend, each donated $5,000. David Farhi, a former research manager who left OpenAI after seven years, gave $3,000.
Why does this matter to people outside the tech world?
These donations show real money now flowing into fights over whether governments should regulate AI. The outcome will shape what AI products can do, how they handle your data, and who is liable when something goes wrong.
Shaunna Thomas, a co-founder of Guardrails Alliance and a longtime Democratic political organiser, says the funding gap doesn't worry her. "When you expose what the AI PACs are doing, the people reject it," she said. "It's less expensive to do that."
Guardrails Alliance is not alone. Public First Action, backed with $20 million from Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI assistant, has pledged to promote AI safety measures in the 2026 elections. Both groups backed Alex Bores, author of New York's landmark AI safety law, in his recent congressional primary. He lost. More than $27 million poured into that single race from groups on both sides.
Meanwhile, OpenAI's global affairs chief reportedly helped establish Leading the Future and has consulted with Brockman on his political giving, though he is not involved in its day-to-day work. OpenAI told Wired AI that Brockman's involvement is personal rather than official company policy, and that staff are free to participate in politics on their own time. Leading the Future, for its part, says it has actually called for some federal AI rules and denies trying to shut down debate.
The real question isn't whether $15 million can match $100 million. It can't. What matters is whether workers publicly bankrolling the opposition forces OpenAI's leadership to answer, internally, for the political machine it's financing.
Guardrails Alliance plans to file its first official donor report with the Federal Election Commission, the US body overseeing political money, on 15 July 2025.
