Rank-and-file OpenAI employees have donated over $215,000 to a rival Super PAC pushing for stricter AI regulation, directly opposing their own company president’s political spending.
Guardrails Alliance, which launched last month with $5M in funding, is positioning itself as a counterweight to Leading the Future, a pro-industry Super PAC backed with over $100M from tech leaders including OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
Seven current OpenAI employees and one former employee have donated to Guardrails Alliance, WIRED reported. The largest donation came from Juan Felipe Ceron Uribe, an OpenAI research engineer who gave $200,000.
Ceron Uribe told WIRED he spent four years working on AI safety at OpenAI and became concerned that research would go to waste without regulations holding companies accountable. He criticized Brockman for funding efforts to keep AI unregulated.
Other OpenAI safety researchers, including Gabriel Wu, Julie Steele, and Jason Wolfe, each donated $5,000 to the group. Former research manager David Farhi, who left OpenAI after seven years, contributed $3,000.
The internal donations highlight growing tension inside OpenAI over AI policy. Brockman’s $50M commitment to Leading the Future sparked concern among employees, who pressed executives to explain the company’s ties to the Super PAC.
Guardrails Alliance aims to raise $15M this election cycle and is backing Democrats who support AI regulation. Anthropic has separately funded a $20M Super PAC called Public First Action to promote AI safeguards in the 2026 elections.
