OpenAI has inaugurated its first lobbying office, "Workshop," in Washington, D.C., strategically located near the White House. This move comes as the company seeks to influence policies on data center expansion and the use of copyrighted content. In the first quarter of 2026, OpenAI's lobbying expenditures reached $1 million, marking a 100% increase from the previous year. The AI lobbying landscape is intensifying, with competitor Anthropic also establishing a Washington presence in April and increasing its lobbying budget tenfold to $3 million last year. Major tech firms like Meta, Nvidia, and Alphabet collectively spent $47.8 million on lobbying in 2025, a 22% rise from the previous year. According to Public Citizen, AI-related issues now engage one-quarter of all federal lobbyists in Washington, up from 11% in 2023.