Despite the generalized budget cuts and corporate funding pivots led by the pandemic, tech companies big and small have continued their sustained investment in lobby and public affairs.

The United States and the European Union are the two main destinations for tech giants’ lobbysts, with Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Huawei leading the pack both in Washington D.C. and Brussels.

According to Transparency International, in 2019 alone, Google spent 8 million euro on lobbying in Brussels. Along with Amazon, Facebook and Apple, lobbying budgets aimed at influencing European policy-makers have increased by 510% since 2014.

Meanwhile, calls for regulation of big tech have ramped up in the U.S., echoed by increasing consumers and regulators concerns about the rising power of tech companies. To keep both at bay, companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, Uber, and Facebook have boosted their lobbying spending significantly over the past decade. An analysis by Statista’s data journalist Felix Richter based on public data tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple spent a combined total of 54.5 million dollars on D.C. lobbying over the past twelve months, up 35% from 2015 and nearly 500%.

The spending hasn’t shied away. According to figures filed with the Senate Office of Public Records this year, both Facebook and Amazon spent a record amount on lobbying in the first six months of 2020, as they are bracing for the so-called “techlash.