Corporations gave more money to super PACs in the 2026 midterms than in any previous election. By Public Citizen’s count of Federal Election Commission filings, for-profit companies gave $737.3 million to super PACs and hybrid PACs through Oct. 23, 2026. That is about four times the $184.1 million they gave in the 2022 midterms, and 60% more than in the 2024 presidential cycle.
Most of that money came from a handful of industries with a lot riding on federal and state regulation: cryptocurrency, online sports betting, and tech and artificial intelligence. Below are the biggest corporate donors, the super PACs that received their money, and how corporate giving works.
How corporations are allowed to give
Corporations still cannot give money directly to federal candidates, a ban that dates to the Tillman Act of 1907. What changed in 2010 was spending that is independent of candidates. In Citizens United v. FEC (January 2010), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts on independent political advertising. Two months later, a federal appeals court ruled in SpeechNow.org v. FEC that groups spending only on independent expenditures could accept contributions of any size. Together, the two rulings created the super PAC: a committee that can take unlimited money from individuals, corporations and unions, as long as it does not coordinate with candidates.
Super PACs must report their donors to the FEC, so corporate contributions are public. But the name on a filing is not always the real source of the money. An individual can give through a company they control, and a nonprofit that does not disclose its own donors can give to a super PAC as a corporation. Both appear in this year’s numbers.
The biggest corporate donors
| Company | Industry | Total | Main recipients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andreessen Horowitz | Venture capital (tech, crypto) | $76.2M | Leading the Future $50M; Fairshake $23.8M |
| Geosor Corp. (Soros family) | Investment vehicle | $52M | Democracy PAC $52M |
| Ripple Labs | Crypto | $49.6M | Fairshake and affiliates $48.5M |
| DraftKings | Online betting | $39.9M | Win for America $39.2M |
| Crypto.com (Foris Dax) | Crypto | $39M | MAGA Inc. $35M |
| Coinbase | Crypto | $37.2M | Fairshake $33.1M |
| Koch Inc. | Industrial conglomerate | $36.8M | Americans for Prosperity Action $30M; Senate Leadership Fund $3.8M |
| Gemini and Winklevoss Capital Fund | Crypto | $35.7M | Digital Freedom Fund $21.3M; MAGA Inc. $14.3M |
| FanDuel | Online betting | $29M | Win for America $27M |
| British American Tobacco (Reynolds American) | Tobacco | $17.9M | MAGA Inc. $8M; Senate Leadership Fund $5M |
| Energy Transfer | Oil and gas pipelines | $15.9M | MAGA Inc. $12.5M |
| Altria | Tobacco | $15.6M | Senate Leadership Fund $7M; Congressional Leadership Fund $5.5M |
| Cantor Fitzgerald | Financial services | $10M | Fellowship PAC $10M |
| Elon Musk Revocable Trust | Personal trust | $10M | Lone Star Liberty PAC $10M |
| Chevron | Oil and gas | $9M | Senate Leadership Fund $4.7M; Congressional Leadership Fund $3.5M |
The super PACs that received the most
| Super PAC | Corporate money received | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| MAGA Inc. | $141M | President Trump’s main super PAC |
| Fairshake | $106.9M | Crypto industry; with affiliates, backs candidates in both parties |
| Win for America | $80.7M | Online sports betting industry |
| Democracy PAC | $52M | The Soros family’s super PAC, which funds Democratic-aligned groups |
| Leading the Future | $50.1M | AI industry; works in both parties’ primaries |
| Senate Leadership Fund | $48.8M | Senate Republican leadership |
| Congressional Leadership Fund | $41.3M | House Republican leadership |
| Americans for Prosperity Action | $30.3M | Koch network |
| Digital Freedom Fund | $22.4M | Crypto; funded largely by the Winklevoss twins’ companies |
| America First Agriculture Action | $12.3M | Not detailed in Public Citizen’s report |
MAGA Inc. stands out. Its $141 million from corporations was nearly 19% of all corporate super PAC money this cycle, and about 31% of the $449 million in contributions it disclosed, according to Public Citizen. For a deeper look at the group, see Where Has MAGA Inc.’s Money Gone?
Three industries supplied most of it
Crypto companies gave about $233 million, online betting companies $85.2 million, and tech, AI and data center companies $73.1 million. Together, that is $391.3 million, or 53% of all corporate giving. Each industry faces major regulatory decisions in Washington or the states:
- Crypto is pushing for a federal market-structure law. Its main super PAC network, Fairshake, is covered in Crypto’s $200 Million Bet.
- Online betting is regulated state by state. Win for America, funded almost entirely by DraftKings and FanDuel, was expected to focus largely on state legislative races rather than Congress, according to Public Citizen’s earlier report.
- AI and data centers face debates over federal versus state regulation and over the local costs of new data centers. See The AI Industry’s First Midterm.
Older industries gave less but still gave substantially: fossil fuel companies, led by Energy Transfer and Chevron, gave $51.4 million, and tobacco companies, led by Reynolds American and Altria, gave $34.8 million.
When “corporate” money is really personal
Some of the largest “corporate” gifts came from vehicles controlled by individual billionaires on both sides. The Soros family gave $52 million to Democracy PAC through Geosor Corp., and Elon Musk gave $10 million to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which backed Ken Paxton in Texas, through his revocable trust. These count as corporate contributions in FEC data, but the decision behind them is one person’s. It is a reminder that the corporate total and the individual-megadonor totals overlap.
How the corporate money fared
Several of the biggest corporate-funded bets lost on Nov. 3. Crypto super PACs put more than $64 million into the Ohio Senate race, where Sherrod Brown won, and AI-industry super PACs struggled to turn spending into wins. Our early 2026 scorecard covers the results race by race.
About these numbers
The figures come from a report by Public Citizen, published Oct. 29, 2026. It counts contributions of $5,000 or more from for-profit corporations to super PACs and hybrid PACs, using FEC data for 2026 and OpenSecrets data for earlier cycles. Public Citizen is an advocacy group that supports overturning Citizens United, but its totals are drawn from public FEC filings that anyone can check. Two caveats apply. First, the figures run only through Oct. 23 and do not include the final weeks before the election, which will appear in the post-general reports due Dec. 3. Second, they likely undercount corporate election spending, because money given through nonprofits that do not disclose their donors does not show up as corporate. Where Public Citizen’s report gives two figures for Andreessen Horowitz ($72 million in its summary and $76.2 million in its table), we use the table figure.
Sources
- Public Citizen: Corporations pour record-smashing $737 million into 2026 midterms (Oct. 29, 2026), and the full report (PDF)
- Public Citizen: Earlier report on crypto, AI and sports betting super PACs (June 30, 2026)
- Bloomberg: FanDuel, DraftKings invest $41 million in super PAC (Apr. 15, 2026)
- AP via AJC: Musk’s gifts to Senate Leadership Fund and Lone Star Liberty PAC (Oct. 2026)
- NationofChange: Corporations gave $737 million to super PACs in 2026 midterms (Nov. 5, 2026)
- Federal Election Commission: Campaign finance data
Published by SuperPACs.com. Figures come from Federal Election Commission filings and the sources listed above. Read about how we work and our editorial standards.