OpenAI’s top lobbyist, Chris Lehane, is privately telling prospective 2028 presidential candidates that artificial intelligence will define their bids for the White House, in a memo obtained by POLITICO and reported on Monday, 2 November.
The memo was sent to about half a dozen prospective candidates, alongside a few members of Congress and prominent political operatives, according to a person with knowledge of the memo who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity. OpenAI declined to comment, Business Insider reported in its syndication of the story.
The key insight:OpenAI’s top lobbyist Chris Lehane sent a memo to about half a dozen prospective 2028 presidential candidates telling them AI will define their bids, and warning that Democrats in particular could find themselves on the wrong side of the debate if they oppose the infrastructure needed to build the technology, POLITICO reported.
Lehane argues that candidates need a governing philosophy for AI, not just talking points about the issues dominating the campaign, POLITICO reports. He warns that Democrats, in particular, could find themselves on the wrong side of the debate if they oppose the infrastructure needed to build the technology, according to the report.
On data centres, POLITICO reports that Lehane warns a fight over them could have consequences far beyond local projects. If the US loses its AI lead to China, he writes, “This could well be the 2028 version of the 2002 vote to go to war in Iraq.”
Lehane, a former press secretary to then-Vice President Al Gore, argues that candidates should offer voters a middle course, according to Business Insider. The memo reads: “The candidate who can articulate a compelling third path between those who would let AI advance without speed limits, and those who would keep control over the technology in the hands of a self-appointed elite, will have an opportunity to define a new contract for this new era.”
He also writes: “A world in which America leads will look very different from one in which the Chinese Communist Party sets the pace”. And: “That doesn’t mean every data center is a good project or that communities should accept higher electricity costs. It means policymakers must solve those problems rather than treating infrastructure itself as the problem.”
In-house federal lobbying expenses in the third quarter of 2025 and 2026, from Senate LD-2 filings compiled by FourWeekMBA. Percentage changes are our arithmetic; outside lobbying firms are not included.
Business Pill · Grid Cost Allocation Explained
Who pays when data centres need new grid capacity: the cost-allocation question Lehane’s memo asks candidates to solve.
Five Questions the Memo Puts to Candidates
By our count, Business Insider’s account of the memo lists five issues Lehane urges candidates to address: how they will keep humans at the helm of consequential decisions; what the tax code should look like in the AI era; how children should be protected; whether AI can make life more affordable; and whether the US can keep its technological lead over China.
Lehane sees AI already showing up in the 2026 election, with unpopular data centres serving as a proxy for affordability concerns, Business Insider reports. He writes that “The successful candidates won’t promise to stop the future or simply trust everything will work out”.
OpenAI’s Washington Spending
OpenAI’s in-house federal lobbying expenses were $1.53 million in the third quarter of 2026, against $0.92 million a year earlier, according to LD-2 filings we compiled for our piece on Meta’s lobbying. That is a rise of 66 percent by our arithmetic. Anthropic’s in-house spend rose to $2.11 million from $1.01 million over the same period.
What’s new here: the memo went to about half a dozen prospective 2028 presidential candidates, alongside a few members of Congress and political operatives, according to POLITICO’s source. As we read it, it ties local data centre fights to the US contest with China.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the memo moves OpenAI’s political work from lobbying Congress on bills to shaping how candidates frame AI before a presidential race begins.
As we read POLITICO’s account, the memo ties local data centre fights to a national contest with China, rather than treating them as separate local planning disputes.
Chris Lehane, OpenAI, in the memo as reported by POLITICO
“This could well be the 2028 version of the 2002 vote to go to war in Iraq.”
Three Implications
FOR 2028 CAMPAIGNS Lehane argues candidates need a governing philosophy for AI rather than talking points, POLITICO reports.
FOR DATA CENTRE POLITICS Lehane writes that not every data center is a good project and that communities should not have to accept higher electricity costs, but that policymakers must solve those problems rather than treating infrastructure itself as the problem, according to Business Insider.
FOR OPENAI’S WASHINGTON SPENDOpenAI’s in-house federal lobbying expenses rose to $1.53 million in the third quarter of 2026 from $0.92 million a year earlier, per LD-2 filings we compiled, a 66 percent rise by our arithmetic.
The framework reads: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, Lehane’s memo is an attempt to keep that bottleneck from becoming a political one: it asks candidates to solve electricity-cost concerns rather than oppose the build-out. The framework is the owner’s argument and does not discuss the memo.
The memo itself has not been published. The quotes above are as POLITICO and Business Insider report them. POLITICO does not name the prospective candidates who received it, and its report does not include responses from party officials. The five-issue count is ours, from Business Insider’s account.
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OpenAI’s Chris Lehane sent a memo to about half a dozen prospective 2028 candidates telling them AI will define their bids, POLITICO reported. If the US loses its AI lead to China, he writes, “This could well be the 2028 version of the 2002 vote to go to war in Iraq.” OpenAI declined to comment.
A note on sourcing. The memo is as reported by POLITICO and Business Insider (which syndicated POLITICO’s story); we have not seen the memo itself. Lobbying figures are from Senate LD-2 filings as compiled in our earlier piece; percentage changes are our arithmetic.
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.
