How AI Companies Are Using TikTok to Shape U.S. Policy on China

A nonprofit group with ties to major AI companies and venture capital firms has been paying TikTok influencers to promote messages about U.S. AI leadership and warn of China's technological progress. The group, called Build American AI, is one part of a bigger effort by the AI industry to influence how the U.S. government makes decisions about artificial intelligence.

Build American AI's website says its goal is to help the United States lead in AI technology and support political candidates who care about AI development. The group is set up as a nonprofit that works closely with a political funding organization, receiving money from major figures at companies like OpenAI and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The influencer campaign started partly because of a recent development: a Chinese AI company called DeepSeek released a new AI model that it said works better and costs less than comparable systems from OpenAI. This got attention around the world and made people in the U.S. tech industry worry that China was catching up faster than expected.

Multiple Ways the Industry Is Pushing Its Message

Beyond paying influencers on TikTok, the AI industry is also using older, more traditional ways to shape policy. Andreessen Horowitz has sent formal recommendations to the White House about AI policy, proposing the creation of a National AI Competitiveness Institute. This institute would give startups and researchers access to computing power and tools to test new AI systems.

The venture capital firm has also hosted events and discussions featuring U.S. Representatives about technology competition and China. The firm employs people whose job is specifically to handle AI policy and government relations. One of its investment leaders focuses on backing companies that fit the firm's goal of strengthening American technological power.

There is also a wider industry campaign called "Leading the Future" that tries to coordinate messaging from many different AI companies and investors. They are all pushing similar points about U.S. AI leadership and how to regulate the technology.

The timing matters. A top science official in the Trump administration has accused Chinese tech companies of copying leading U.S. AI systems and using American innovation unfairly. This frames the competition as a matter of stolen ideas and technology transfers.

We have seen similar coordination before. During the push for the CHIPS Act—legislation that supported semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S.—companies in that industry combined formal lobbying with grassroots campaigns to build public support. The AI industry is now using a similar strategy, but with more reliance on social media platforms to reach ordinary people directly.

The Tension at the Heart of This Campaign

There is something noteworthy about Build American AI's choice to promote its message about China's threat on TikTok, a platform owned by a Chinese company. The organization is warning about Chinese technology dominance while using a Chinese-controlled platform to spread that message. This contradiction gets at how complicated global technology competition has become.

The group's candidate questionnaire shows it favors government policies that support more AI development and shapes how it evaluates political candidates based on their stance on AI rules, research funding, and competition with other countries. The approach treats AI as something both political parties should care about, even if the group has specific policy preferences.

Looking at what is actually shifting here, the AI industry clearly now sees public opinion and online messaging as central to winning favorable policies. Companies and investors are spending money and effort to shape what ordinary people think about AI and China, not just lobbying Congress behind closed doors. This tells us that tech leaders believe they need to win over the broader public if they want the rules they want.

The Build American AI campaign shows how the industry has formalized influence activities that were happening less openly before. The structure allows for coordinated messaging while following the legal rules about political spending. This approach could become a template for other tech sectors seeking to influence policy in the same way.