Google's former CEO is leveraging his US$27 billion fortune to shape AI policy
ERIC Schmidt isn’t shy about his wealth and power: The former Google CEO recently won an auction for a superyacht seized from a Russian oligarch, he owns a big stake in a secretive and successful hedge fund, and he spent US$15 million on the Manhattan penthouse featured in Oliver Stone’s sequel to Wall Street.
He has also leveraged his US$27 billion fortune to build a powerful influence machine in Washington that’s allowed him to shape public policy to reflect his world-view and benefit the industries in which he’s deeply invested – most recently, artificial intelligence (AI). When senators meet this week to hear from tech executives and experts about how AI should be regulated, Schmidt will be at the table.
In his previous comments to Congress on AI, Schmidt has delivered a relatively simple message: The US needs to keep both public and private money flowing to innovative companies to counter China’s technological advancements. Behind his testimony, he has complex layers of connections to drive that message home.
There’s the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a private think tank he founded in 2021 and funded with an initial US$2 million. Located roughly a mile from the Pentagon and modelled on a Cold War-era initiative, SCSP focuses on how AI and other emerging technologies could upend the US economy and national security. It has sent experts this year to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee and advise the House committee studying the US’ “strategic competition” with China. At the think tank’s emerging technology summit later this month, Schmidt and his associates will once again share the stage with senior Biden administration officials.
Then there’s Schmidt Futures, his initiative to support scientists and entrepreneurs, some of whom have gone on to work for governments around the world. Politico reported last year that Schmidt Futures indirectly paid the salaries of some White House science office employees.
And Schmidt himself has been on high-profile advisory committees under the past three presidential administrations, including the National Security Commission on AI – mandated by Congress – which he led from 2019 to 2021.
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“For decades, there’s been a hollowing out of the federal government’s expertise and capacity, and that hollowing out has helped create an opportunity for Schmidt – who would always be an influential person under any scenario – to be just mind-blowingly influential,” said Jeff Hauser, head of the Revolving Door Project, a non-profit that scrutinises government appointees. “He just has the capacity to generate almost every mouth that is in the ears of policymakers in Washington.”
And they appear to be listening.
“I’ve always found Eric Schmidt to be a helpful resource,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an e-mailed response to questions about the former Google CEO. “I know many senators on both sides of the aisle feel the same way. He is smart, thoughtful, and pragmatic.”
When Schmidt testified before the House’s China committee in May, he said the US “must organise around innovation power”. The next month, Schumer said “innovation must be our North Star” when introducing his AI framework and the roundtable of tech leaders he’ll host this week.
All this is happening at a key moment for American AI policy, as the government races to set the global standard for regulating the new technology. Schumer said he aims to turn this week’s “insight forum” – including Schmidt, civil society leaders and executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other top tech companies – into legislation in a matter of months, not years.
“Eric has been grateful for the opportunity to volunteer his time, serving on various US government committees under both Democratic and Republican administrations, and has always fully complied with all disclosure requirements,” a spokesperson for Schmidt said in an e-mailed statement.
‘Your emissaries’
Schmidt, who took over as Google CEO from founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 2001 to help the company grow and go public, has already profited handsomely from Wall Street’s newfound obsession with AI. The bulk of Schmidt’s wealth comes from his roughly 1 per cent stake in Google parent Alphabet, one of a handful of companies that have been the key drivers and beneficiaries of AI advancements in the US. He also owns 20 per cent of hedge fund DE Shaw & Co, which manages US$60 billion and is a prominent investor in technology and AI.
Alphabet’s share price is up 55 per cent this year, helping add US$7.9 billion to Schmidt’s net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He’s collected about US$4 billion from the sale of Alphabet stock over the years, which has helped fund his investments in AI startups, including some that have gone on to win federal contracts.
Back in June, Schmidt agreed at a public auction to pay US$67.6 million for the Alfa Nero superyacht, which was abandoned in Antigua after the US Treasury sanctioned Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev. He dropped the purchase after the deal faced legal challenges.
Government watchdogs and outside groups have long raised questions about Schmidt’s potential conflicts of interest. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, last year wrote to the Pentagon to lay out her concerns that Schmidt could use his position on federal commissions to “further his own personal financial interests”.
Schmidt has been remarkably candid about how his connections from the National Security Commission on AI and his other initiatives expand his reach – a strategy honed from his time at Google, which has developed a reputation as a lobbying powerhouse that aggressively advocates for its interests in Washington.
“The people who work in the commission and then go into the government, they are your emissaries,” Schmidt told a Capitol Hill cyber policy event in June. “A rule of business is that if you could put your person in the company, they’re likely to buy from you. It’s the same principle.”
At the same Capitol Hill event, Schmidt pointed to how much of the AI commission’s final report was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), one of the bipartisan spending bills Congress passes annually.
“This is pretty arrogant on our part, but we figured, since they’ve asked us to work, we might as well produce some legislation candidates, and much of that, something like two-thirds of it, is now part of the NDAA,” Schmidt said.
Contracts
According to a June report from the conservative non-profit Bull Moose Project, Schmidt’s own venture capital funds and others in which he owns a stake invested in at least 57 AI startups, seven of which won government contracts or other forms of support. These investments, which were verified by Bloomberg News, include Rebellion Defense, a warfighting software company that counts Schmidt-backed venture firm Innovation Endeavors among its investors and won an Energy Department contract in April to enhance cybersecurity for the US nuclear arsenal.
Innovation Endeavors also invested in Machina Labs, an AI and robotics manufacturing company that has won US$4.8 million in contracts from the Defense Department and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since 2021, according to government spending data cited by Bull Moose, including a US$3 million contract for aerospace components.
The Tech Transparency Project, a non-profit, also documented how Schmidt helped craft the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which injected more than US$50 billion into US manufacturing of semiconductors, an essential ingredient in AI development. Several of his initiatives, including the public-private America’s Frontier Fund, are poised to benefit from the legislation, according to the non-profit’s July report.
Schmidt’s financial interest in AI isn’t limited to US companies. Even as he warns policymakers about the competitive threat from China, his philanthropic Schmidt Family Foundation has invested in some of China’s biggest tech companies developing AI tools.
Managed by Hillspire, Schmidt’s family office, the foundation held US$1.7 million in Tencent Holdings and US$1 million in Alibaba Group, according to tax documents filed last year. It also had smaller investments in more than 40 other Chinese companies, including state-owned enterprises such as the Bank of China. These investments made up a small portion of the foundation’s US$2.3 billion in total assets.
A Schmidt spokesperson said the investments were made by a third-party manager and neither Schmidt nor the foundation made any decisions, suggestions or recommendations. The spokesperson didn’t respond to a question regarding the current size of the foundation’s stake in the Chinese companies.
‘Our solution’
AI isn’t the only emerging technology to be shaped by Schmidt and his network. In April 2022, a Schmidt Futures task force published a report on how the US should develop biotechnology. Several months later, the White House issued an executive order that echoed many of its recommendations, including proposals for federal investment and data sharing.
In December, Congress appointed Schmidt to the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, roughly two years after he founded First Spark Ventures, a fund that invests in the industry.
At a synthetic biology conference last year, he advised attendees on how to win the US government’s attention and money.
“What I found with politicians – because I spend an infinite amount of time in Washington, it seems, and have for decades – is some people respond to the threat from another country” like China, Schmidt said, while others respond to the promise of solving issues such as climate change. The trick, he said, is to “figure out what they care about and offer our solution to their problems”.
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