White House staff now need prior approval from the White House Counsel’s office before meeting registered lobbyists on the White House complex about government policy, under a memo from the office of chief of staff Stephen Miller that Politico reported on 12 November. Nvidia and OpenAI alone reported $3.68 million of in-house lobbying in the third quarter, about $3.7 million by our sum of their Senate disclosures.
Across seven AI and chip companies, Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon, in-house lobbying reported for July to September 2026 came to $21.83 million, our sum, up 11.0% from $19.66 million a year earlier. Benny Johnson posted the full memo on X at 01:05 UTC on 13 November.
Business Pill · Concentration Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on concentration, the general idea behind a few players holding a large share. It teaches the concept only and does not discuss lobbying, the memo or these companies.
The key insight: As we read the memo and the filings, the new rule governs a channel, not the spending: it requires Counsel approval for White House-complex meetings with registered lobbyists, while seven AI and chip companies reported $21.83 million of in-house lobbying in the third quarter, by our sum.
The memo, as published by Johnson, is addressed to White House Office staff from Alina Bulazel, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of the Chief of Staff. Its subject line reads “Policy Regarding Meetings with Lobbyists”.
Its operative sentence reads: “White House staff must receive prior approval from the Office of White House Counsel for meetings on the White House complex with registered lobbyists related to government policy.” It adds that the Office of Public Liaison “will continue to serve as the primary point of contact for engagement with external stakeholders”.
The memo opens: “No President in history has fought more relentlessly, selflessly or courageously for the American People than President Trump.” It then says staff “are expected to dedicate their time unwaveringly to the working people of the nation”.
Johnson’s post described the memo as a “Total BAN On Unauthorized Meetings with Lobbyists and Special Interests”. The memo text sets an approval requirement for registered lobbyists on the White House complex, and it does not use the word ban. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, as quoted by Newser, that “President Trump’s loyalty is to the American people, not lobbyists”.
In-house lobbying expenses reported on third-quarter LD-2 filings, 2025 and 2026, by seven AI and chip companies, from the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, read 13 November 2026. Nvidia’s 2025 figure is its amended report. Outside lobbying firms file separately and are not included.
Seven AI Companies, $21.8 Million in a Quarter
Each company that lobbies with its own staff files a quarterly LD-2 report giving its lobbying expenses. We read the third-quarter reports for 2025 and 2026 in the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database on 13 November. Figures are the companies’ in-house expenses; outside lobbying firms report separately and are not included.
Meta, $5.88 million. The largest in-house figure of the seven, against $5.84 million a year earlier.
Amazon, $4.49 million. Up from $4.35 million. Meta and Amazon together account for 47.5% of the seven-company total, by our arithmetic.
Google, $3.23 million. Down from $3.57 million, a fall of 9.5% by our arithmetic, and the only decline among the seven.
Microsoft, $2.44 million. Up from $2.02 million.
Nvidia, $2.15 million. Its third-quarter report compares with an amended $1.95 million a year earlier, up 10.3% by our arithmetic.
Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic together reported $5.79 million of in-house lobbying in the quarter, 26.5% of the seven-company total, by our arithmetic. The memo governs meetings with registered lobbyists on the White House complex; the filings we read do not say how many of those companies’ lobbying contacts took place at the White House.
The Structural Read
As we read the LD-2 reports, the fastest growth among the seven came from the two model labs: Anthropic’s in-house figure about doubled to $2.11 million and OpenAI’s rose 66% to $1.53 million, by our arithmetic, while the three largest spenders, Meta, Amazon and Google, moved by less than 10% each.
As we read the memo, it routes industry contact through the Office of Public Liaison, which it names as the primary point of contact for external stakeholders; it does not address contact with agencies or Congress, where the export-control bills sit.
White House memorandum on meetings with lobbyists, as published by Benny Johnson on X, 13 November 2026
“White House staff must receive prior approval from the Office of White House Counsel for meetings on the White House complex with registered lobbyists related to government policy.”
Three Implications
FOR AI COMPANIES WITH WASHINGTON TEAMS Meetings with registered lobbyists on the White House complex about policy now need the Counsel’s prior approval, the memo says; the Office of Public Liaison remains the primary contact.
FOR READERS TRACKING THE CHIP FIGHT Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic together reported $5.79 million of in-house lobbying in the third quarter, by our arithmetic; the next LD-2 reports are due on 20 January.
The framework describes the AI Supercycle as having “a layered industrial stack of nine layers, running from energy at the bedrock to governance at the ceiling”.
As we read it, lobbying sits at that governance layer: the seven companies we checked span chips, models and cloud, and each reported its own Washington spend for the quarter. The framework does not discuss lobbying or the memo.
What Is Not Established
Politico’s article could not be read by our fetcher; we rely on its reporting as summarised by Newser and the Daily Caller, whose quoted memo lines match the memo Johnson posted. The memo is undated in the published image, and we did not see a White House release of it.
Raw Story, citing Politico, noted the rule covers meetings on the White House complex only. The memo does not say how approvals will be decided or whether exceptions exist. The LD-2 figures are in-house expenses only, and some of these companies also pay outside firms. We did not contact the White House or the companies for this piece.
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Under the memo, White House staff need the Counsel’s approval to meet registered lobbyists on the complex about policy, with the Office of Public Liaison as the main channel. The seven AI and chip companies we checked reported $21.83 million of in-house lobbying in the third quarter, by our sum, with Nvidia and OpenAI at $3.68 million between them. The next LD-2 reports, for the fourth quarter, are due on 20 January.
A note on sourcing. The memo text is quoted as published in full, as an image, by Benny Johnson on X on 13 November 2026; Politico reported the memo on 12 November, and we read that report as summarised by Newser and the Daily Caller. Lobbying figures are the in-house expenses on third-quarter LD-2 reports in the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act database, read on 13 November; the totals, changes and shares are our arithmetic. We did not contact the White House or the companies for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
