Companies gave a record $646 million to U.S. political campaigns in the 18 months through June, 40% more than the total donated during the entire 2024 presidential election cycle, according to Public Citizen. The consumer advocacy group, founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, analyzed Federal Election Commission filings and manually filtered corporate donations while removing duplicates involving executives and their companies. The total excludes dark money groups and spending on state races, and could rise as the contest for control of Congress intensifies in the final two months of the 2026 campaign. Crypto remained the largest corporate donor industry, followed by online betting and AI; together, the three sectors contributed $344 million, more than half the total. Koch Inc. gave $20 million to Americans for Prosperity Action, Reynolds American donated $5 million through a subsidiary to MAGA Inc., and six cannabis companies contributed $11.5 million to America First Agriculture Action Inc. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss donated $10 million to MAGA Inc. through Gemini Trust Co. Online betting companies have given $76 million to the midterms so far, while a super PAC aligned with OpenAI reported $50 million received and $62 million in sector donations reported to the FEC. Public Citizen said the figures omit Meta's $65 million earmarked for state races, Anthropic's $40 million donation to Public First Action, and major personal political spending by Elon Musk and Sergey Brin. The data has renewed debate over whether corporate political spending disproportionately amplifies narrow interests or protects free speech rights.