Tech dished out more money than ever lobbying in 2024, spending $85.6 million compared to $68 million in 2023.
Why it matters: Giants and startups alike poured resources into advancing their policy agendas and thwarting off regulation they disagree with.
- Companies lobbied on bills to protect kids online, privacy, the open-versus-closed source debate, broadband access, and patents.
State of play: Tech has the ear of President Trump, and bipartisan outcry of social media harms is being drowned out by a Republican majority focused on deregulation and innovation.
- Companies may go from defense to offense with the new dynamics as debates over stripping platforms of their legal liability shield are replaced with debates over how to win the global tech race.
By the numbers, per an Axios review of federal lobbying disclosures: Meta was the biggest spender both overall last year and in Q4, followed by Amazon and then Google.
- Meta spent $5.5 million in Q4 and $24.2 million in 2024, compared with $19.3 million in 2023
- Amazon spent $4.7 million in Q4 and $17.6 million in 2024, compared with $17.8 million in 2023
- Google spent $3.1 million in Q4 and $12.1 million in 2024, compared with $12 million spent in 2023
- Microsoft spent $2.3 million in Q4 and $9.5 million in 2024, compared with $9 million in 2023
- Apple spent $1.7 million in Q4 and $7.7 million in 2024, compared with $9.6 million spent in 2023
Notable mentions: TikTok parent company ByteDance's spending rose again to $10.2 million in 2024 as TikTok fought against a sale-or-ban bill.
- ByteDance's spending had already spiked from $2.8 million in 2022 to $8.7 million 2023.
- Snap spent more than in previous years but continues to me among the most modest social media spenders going from $860,000 in 2023 to $950,000 in 2024.
Artificial intelligence dominated the agenda as concerns over deepfakes and disinformation in an election year, as well as a desire to out-compete China, swirled on Capitol Hill.
- a16z spent $1.7 million in 2024 compared to 950,000 in 2023.
- OpenAI spent $1.7 million in 2024. The company started lobbying for the first time in 2023 and spent $260,000 that year.
What we're watching: Tech spending on lobbying skyrocketed in 2024, and we'll be tracking how that trend continues as Congress and the Trump administration take specific positions on AI, antitrust and more.
