How Much Do Foreign Governments Spend on U.S. PR Firms?

Everything-PR Research · Foreign Influence Index 2026 · Inaugural Edition

Inaugural edition. Who pays, who earns, and what the FARA data reveals about the most concentrated corner of the U.S. PR industry.

By the Everything-PR Research Team
First published April 21, 2026 · Updated October 8, 2026

Part of the FARA guide. Country lobbying maps: Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Roughly $5 billion has flowed from foreign governments, state-owned entities, and overseas principals to U.S. lobbying, public-affairs, and communications firms since 2016. Every dollar disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). It is one of the most transparent segments of the communications industry, and one of the least studied.

This is the inaugural edition of the Everything-PR Foreign Influence Index, a recurring annual study built from DOJ FARA eFile records, OpenSecrets Foreign Lobby Watch aggregations, Quincy Institute research, and Bloomberg Government revenue rankings. It examines who pays, who earns, and what the data reveals about the firms that dominate foreign-principal public relations in the United States.

Three Findings Define the 2026 Foreign Influence Data

1. Fewer than 20 firms capture most of the market. The bottom 250 FARA registrants combined earn less than the top five. A single firm, BGR Group, logged 16,866 discrete political activities for foreign principals during 2022–23 alone, a volume structurally impossible for any firm outside the top tier to match. Foreign-influence PR is one of the most concentrated specialist categories inside the broader U.S. communications industry.

2. Japan has quietly overtaken China. Japanese principals led 2024 disclosed spending at $48.5 million, driven by JETRO and an 8% year-over-year increase in Japanese corporate FARA activity reported by Nikkei in mid-2025. Since 2016 Japan trails only China, at $504.1 million against $562.7 million, according to OpenSecrets. China's annual disclosed spend collapsed more than 60% in a single year, from $85.4M in 2023 to $32.9M in 2024, concentrated in state-media registrants rather than traditional lobbying. The conventional "Saudi-and-China" narrative is out of date. The actual story is structural diversification, and a trade-promotion buyer profile replacing the embassy press counselor.

3. Sovereign buyers are purchasing a 1990s service mix. The work is overwhelmingly congressional outreach, op-ed placement, ambassador dinner coordination, and event hosting. Modern integrated communications such as paid social, influencer programs, ESG reporting, stakeholder advisory, and crisis infrastructure is largely absent from FARA filings.

"China's FARA-disclosed spend fell more than 60% in a single year. Japan now leads the annual table. That is not a narrative shift. It is a market shift, and the U.S. PR industry has yet to price it in."

Key Statistics: $5B Disclosed Across 180+ Countries Since 2016

Methodology: Four Data Sources Triangulated Across DOJ, OpenSecrets, Quincy and Bloomberg

This study triangulates four independent data sources to produce country-level, firm-level, and activity-level estimates.

DOJ FARA eFile system. The Department of Justice FARA Unit maintains a public database of every registration statement, supplemental statement, short-form filing, and informational material filed under the statute. Supplemental statements, filed every six months, itemize receipts by foreign principal, political contributions, and political activities. Source: efile.fara.gov.

OpenSecrets Foreign Lobby Watch. A structured aggregation of FARA filings maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics. OpenSecrets data for 2016 through 2025 shows China leading at $562.7M, followed by Japan ($504.1M), Liberia ($433.0M), Saudi Arabia ($421.9M) and the Marshall Islands ($382.0M), with Qatar at $269.3M and Israel at $214.6M.

Quincy Institute foreign-lobbying analyses. A 2024–2025 research series from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft categorizing 130,000+ discrete political activities conducted by U.S. firms on behalf of foreign principals in 2022 and 2023, plus $14.3M in registrant political contributions over the same two-year window.

Bloomberg Government and PRWeek / O'Dwyer's benchmarks. Bloomberg Government agency revenue rankings cross-referenced against FARA registrant lists to identify which firms derive material revenue from foreign principals and at what scale.

A note on limitations. FARA discloses only what registrants file. Principals routing activity through available exemptions (LDA, attorney-at-law, academic, religious, "commercial activity") are not captured. The figures here represent a disclosed floor, not a ceiling. Modeled estimates are labeled as such throughout.

Country Rankings: China Leads Since 2016 at $562.7M, Japan Led 2024 at $48.5M

Source: OpenSecrets Foreign Lobby Watch, totals since 2016 through 2025, retrieved October 8, 2026. Totals are disclosed FARA spending and include nongovernment principals. The Government of Bermuda ($212.0M) and ANO TV-Novosti ($147.1M) also appear among the largest single principals.

The 2024 annual picture differs. Japan led 2024 at $48.5 million, and China fell to $32.9 million from $85.4 million in 2023, according to OpenSecrets data analyzed by the Washington Examiner. The same analysis found that Saudi Arabia, Japan, China and South Korea outspent Israel and Qatar in 2024. EPR has not independently verified 2024 amounts for the other countries.

Countries outside the top ten. Taiwan spent just over $25 million from 2016 to mid-2022 per OpenSecrets data reported by Responsible Statecraft. Ukrainian clients paid $10.9 million from 2022 to early 2024, and Azerbaijan spent just over $7 million from 2015 to late 2023. Earlier editions of this table listed modeled estimates for these three countries that were higher than the sourced figures. Liberia, the Marshall Islands and the Bahamas are not profiled by EPR. Their totals are concentrated in single government principals, and EPR has not verified what activity they fund.

Country Hubs: EPR Coverage of the Markets Driving Disclosed Spend

→ Japan: $504.1M since 2016; $48.5M in 2024 (#1). JETRO and corporate FARA activity. Trade-promotion buyer profile replacing the embassy press counselor. Japan Lobbying Industry Map · Best PR Firms in Japan: Leading Public Relations Agencies (2026).

→ China: $562.7M since 2016; $32.9M in 2024, down 60% YoY from $85.4M. State-media registrants, not traditional lobbying. China Marketing 101 · The China Lobbying Industry Map 2026.

→ Saudi Arabia: $421.9M since 2016. Vision 2030, PIF, LIV Golf, the Khashoggi-era reset and the post-2030 communications machine. Saudi Arabia Lobbying Industry Map · Saudi Arabia PR & Communications Guide.

→ South Korea: $363.2M since 2016. KOTRA, Korea Foundation, chaebol corporates. South Korea's Communications State · South Korea PR Firms 2026 · BGR and the Korea FARA filing. The Sue Mi Terry indictment, in which a former CIA analyst was charged for covert influence work on behalf of South Korean intelligence, has reframed the country's FARA profile despite its close-ally status.

→ UAE and Egypt: $269.5M since 2016 (UAE). Government, Mubadala, investment attraction, and the cross-payment structure DOJ filings expose. The UAE's $65M Washington Machine · Egypt's Washington PR Firms Are Paid by the UAE.

→ Qatar: $269.3M since 2016. 627 in-person U.S. political meetings, 2021–2025, more than any other country. Qatar Lobbying Industry Map · Qatar Is Great at Public Relations.

→ Israel: $214.6M since 2016. Government and public diplomacy. The AI-era visibility gap inside the answer engines. Israel Books Two U.S. Firms in One Week · Israel & the AI Answer Layer. In August 2026, Mercury Public Affairs was retained by a Jerusalem think tank for $5,000 to push full U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations. The work is FARA-registered, anonymously funded, and now in front of Congress.

→ Ukraine (outside the top ten): $10.9M from all Ukrainian clients, 2022 to early 2024. A small budget but one of the most active lobbies by reported contacts, with much of the work pro bono. Ukraine's Washington Strategy · Ukraine's Information War.

Firm Tiers: Four Revenue Bands From $0 to $10M+ in Foreign-Principal Work

FARA supplemental-statement data, cross-referenced with Bloomberg Government's 2024 lobbying firm rankings, reveals four distinct tiers of foreign-principal engagement inside the U.S. PR and public affairs industry.

Tier 4: Occasional registrants ($0–$500K annually). One-off or short-term engagements. Typically a single corporate (not governmental) client. No dedicated FARA infrastructure. The majority of the 300+ registered firms fall here.

Tier 3: Mid-tier foreign-principal firms ($500K–$3M). One to three recurring foreign-principal clients. Small dedicated FARA compliance function. Primarily congressional outreach and op-ed placement. Common among D.C. public-affairs firms in the $10M–$40M overall-revenue range.

Tier 2: Major foreign-principal practices ($3M–$10M). Multiple concurrent foreign-government clients. Full-service FARA compliance. Integrated with federal lobbying. Ballard Partners, Mercury Public Affairs, BGR Group at the practice-group level, plus specialized shops like American Defense International and Stryk Global.

Tier 1: Foreign-principal dominant firms ($10M+). Multi-country, multi-year portfolios. Often the single largest revenue segment in the firm. FARA-registered activities measured in the thousands per year. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld leads on in-person meetings secured. BGR Group leads on total activities. Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Bloomberg Government's #1 U.S. lobbying firm by 2024 revenue at $67.9M, operates a significant foreign-principal practice alongside its domestic work.

Firm Leaderboard: Akin Gump, BGR and Brownstein Lead the Foreign-Principal Category

Source: Everything-PR Research Team analysis of FARA filings, Quincy Institute 2024 rankings, Bloomberg Government 2024 top-performing lobbying firms analysis.

Four Traits Separate Tier 1 Firms From the Other 250 Registrants

• Scale: multi-million-dollar foreign-principal practices, not one-off engagements
• Dedicated FARA compliance infrastructure: full-time counsel, written intake protocols, 48-hour filing workflows, semi-annual supplemental-statement processes
• Deep, durable Washington relationships: bipartisan, multi-administration, cross-committee
• Multi-country portfolios: smoothing revenue across political cycles, regional crises, and individual client departures

The tier is reproducible. The compliance burden is the moat. The full ranked benchmark and quarterly disclosure cycle: Top Lobbying Firms 2026: The Directory.

What the Money Buys: Six Activity Categories Across 130,000 Filings

Quincy Institute analysis of 130,000+ discrete political activities in 2022–23 shows the work clusters in six recurring categories.

• Congressional staff outreach and meeting requests: the single largest activity category by volume.
• Op-ed placement and media pitching: concentrated at the Washington Post (1,257 contacts in 2022–23), New York Times (924), and Wall Street Journal (886) at the top of the league table, with a defined second tier of Bloomberg, Reuters, Politico, Axios, The Hill, Foreign Policy, Forbes, Wired, The Atlantic, TIME, and the Associated Press. Wired and Forbes are drawing rising contact volume from China-, Israel-, and UAE-linked principals representing surveillance, telecom, semiconductor, and dual-use technology brands, with Hikvision and ByteDance among the recurring registrant clients.
• Ambassador dinner coordination: one firm alone logged 107 such activities in 2022–23, all involving Saudi Arabia's ambassador.
• Event and conference hosting: JETRO, KOTRA, and similar trade-promotion bodies anchor this category.
• Issue-specific advocacy: sanctions relief, export controls, weapons procurement, tariff negotiation, state-visit preparation. Plus $14.3M in registrant campaign contributions in 2022–23 combined.
• Episodic crisis response: UAE after Yemen coverage, Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi, Qatar after World Cup labor coverage, Ukraine after invasion, Azerbaijan after Nagorno-Karabakh.

What is conspicuously absent from FARA filings: modern integrated digital communications, paid social amplification, influencer programs, ESG reporting, stakeholder advisory, and the crisis-infrastructure services Fortune 500 companies routinely purchase from commercial PR agencies. The foreign-principal market is, in aggregate, buying a narrower and older service mix than the domestic corporate market.

Unit Economics: A $5B Cumulative Market Against $4.5B in Annual Federal Lobbying

Federal lobbying spending reached a record $4.5 billion in 2024, per Bloomberg Government. Against that, cumulative foreign-principal disclosed spend of ~$5 billion since 2016 is a small but highly concentrated specialist market, measured in hundreds of millions per year, not billions. The distinguishing characteristics are fewer firms, larger average retainers, narrower activity mix, and a higher compliance burden than comparable domestic public-affairs work. The unit economics favor scale and specialization, which is why the category concentrates inside a handful of D.C.-based firms.

Enforcement: The Bondi-NSPM-7 Paradox and the Rivera Conviction

The enforcement landscape has shifted materially since this study was first published in April 2026. Three developments define the current posture.

The Bondi Memo (February 2025). Attorney General Pam Bondi narrowed criminal FARA prosecution to "conduct similar to more traditional espionage" and disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force. DOJ has not announced a new § 611 FARA charging case since September 2024.

NSPM-7 (September 2025). Seven months after Bondi narrowed FARA enforcement, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, directing federal agencies to use FARA to "investigate, prosecute, and disrupt" entities with foreign ties engaged in activities the administration considers political violence or intimidation. NSPM-7 directs the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to compile a list of groups and entities for investigation, explicitly referencing FARA as an enforcement tool. A leaked December 2025 Bondi implementation memo instructed JTTFs to "use all available investigative tools" to map networks of culpable actors. The net effect: FARA criminal enforcement narrowed for commercial foreign-principal work, but widened for politically targeted investigations.

The Rivera Conviction (May 2026) and Sentence (October 2026). On May 1, 2026, a federal jury in Miami found former U.S. Representative David Rivera guilty of conspiracy to violate FARA, a FARA violation, conspiracy to commit money laundering and four counts of engaging in transactions in criminally derived property, according to a Wiley FARA alert. Prosecutors said Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, obtained a $50 million contract from a subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, to lobby for Venezuelan interests without registering. On October 2, 2026, Reuters reported that Rivera was sentenced to 10 years in prison. His lawyers argued he was working to help the Venezuelan opposition and noted that the Trump administration has deemphasized FARA cases since January 2025. The case shows that FARA criminal enforcement remains active for covert operations involving adversary-state principals, though the charges were brought in 2022. See The Manafort Precedent and What Followed for the earlier landmark case that set the template for FARA criminal prosecutions.

Active cases. DOJ has continued prosecuting pending FARA and FARA-related matters filed before the Bondi memo, including the April 2025 guilty plea of former CIA officer Dale Bendler under 18 U.S.C. § 219, the June 2025 superseding indictment of former New York gubernatorial aide Linda Sun (trial ended in a hung jury in December 2025), and the Sue Mi Terry case, in which a former CIA analyst was indicted for covert influence work on behalf of South Korean intelligence and has moved to dismiss. DOJ maintained in the Terry case that FARA prosecution remains appropriate even for allies. See also The Sri Lanka FARA Case: $6.5 Million to Imaad Zuberi for an earlier example of the same enforcement pattern.

Advisory opinion activity. In October 2025, DOJ quietly published, then unpublished, 17 new FARA advisory opinions, some hinting that DOJ is applying the "predominant interest" test proposed in its December 2024 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. The regulatory landscape remains uncertain. For the full compliance picture, see What FARA Requires in 2026.

Baby FARA: Eight States Enacted, Ten-Plus Debating

At the state level, the pattern has accelerated sharply since this study was first published. Eight states have now enacted Baby FARA statutes: Arkansas (April 2025), Texas (June 2025, effective September 2025), Louisiana (2025), Nebraska (May 2025), Oklahoma (2025), Florida (2025), Indiana (2025–26), and Maine (2025–26). See State Baby FARA Laws: What PR Firms Must Register For for the current state-by-state picture.

Bills have been introduced or are under active consideration in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

The state laws differ from federal FARA in critical ways. Most target "foreign adversary" principals specifically, typically China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Texas imposes a compensation ban on agents of foreign adversaries, making it potentially impossible for subsidiaries of Chinese companies to retain Texas lobbyists unless they work pro bono. Most state laws lack the exemptions (LDA, commercial activity, attorney-at-law) that allow many foreign-principal engagements to avoid federal registration.

The net effect: lower federal criminal enforcement risk for commercial foreign-principal work, rising and fragmented state-level compliance burden, and continued federal enforcement for covert operations and adversary-state principals.

Federal Legislative Activity

Late in 2025, the Senate passed two bills to broaden foreign-agent disclosure: the Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act (S. 856) would require LDA registrants to identify any foreign government entities participating in the direction or control of lobbying activities, and the Lobbying Disclosure Improvement Act (S. 865) would require all LDA registrants to indicate whether they are filing under LDA to satisfy a FARA obligation. Senator Grassley also introduced the Litigation Funding Transparency Act of 2026, requiring disclosure of foreign third-party litigation funding in major federal civil actions. The FRONT Act (Foreign Registration Obligations for Nonprofit Transparency) would extend FARA-like requirements to nonprofits receiving covered foreign funds.

Internationally, the United Kingdom's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) took effect on July 1, 2025, creating a parallel disclosure regime for persons engaging in political influence activities on behalf of foreign powers in the UK.

What This Means for Agencies, Compliance Officers and Industry Benchmarkers

1. The foreign-principal segment deserves a permanent place in U.S. PR industry benchmarking. Larger, more concentrated, and more data-rich than O'Dwyer's, PRWeek, or Bloomberg Government rankings reflect on their own. The absence of a regular industry-wide benchmark has contributed to a collective blind spot in how the PR business measures its total addressable market.

2. The activity mix signals an underserved buyer. Sovereign principals are purchasing a narrower service range than domestic corporate buyers of comparable scale. The repetitive concentration on congressional outreach and a small media cluster suggests even sophisticated state buyers are not accessing the modern integrated communications toolkit.

3. The compliance landscape is now multi-jurisdictional. Any U.S. firm operating in or adjacent to the category in 2026 needs federal FARA compliance infrastructure (dedicated counsel, written intake protocols, 48-hour filing workflows, semi-annual supplemental-statement processes), plus state-by-state Baby FARA compliance mapping for every state where the firm operates or where its principals have interests. The UK FIRS adds an international layer for firms with London operations. Reputational risk is now higher than nominal federal enforcement risk, and state enforcement is an open question.

How FARA Works in 2026: Statute, Enforcement, Disclosure and Retrieval

The operations side. Statute, enforcement, disclosure mechanics, and reputation, the infrastructure that explains how the foreign-principal market actually runs.

Statute & Compliance. What FARA Requires in 2026.

Enforcement. The DOJ FARA Unit's Enforcement Posture · The Manafort Precedent and What Followed · The Sri Lanka FARA Case: $6.5 Million to Imaad Zuberi.

Reputation & Retrieval. The Cohort Effect and the Disclosure-Reputation Collapse.

Related Research

→ FARA Explained: Law, Case Files and Country Lobbying Maps
→ Japan Lobbying Industry Map
→ Saudi Arabia Lobbying Industry Map
→ Qatar Lobbying Industry Map
→ PR Spend Transparency Study 2026
→ Top Lobbying Firms 2026: The Directory
→ The China Lobbying Industry Map 2026
→ Egypt's Washington PR Firms Are Paid by the UAE
→ Mercury Hired by Israeli Think Tank for UN Withdrawal Push
→ U.S. PR Firms Directory

This study was produced by the Everything-PR Research Team and is available for republication with attribution. For inquiries: everything-pr.com.

Methodology note: All figures derive from publicly disclosed FARA filings (efile.fara.gov), OpenSecrets Foreign Lobby Watch, Quincy Institute research, Opendatabot, Washington Examiner reporting, FDD analysis, Global Investigative Journalism Network reporting, Bloomberg Government's 2024 top-performing lobbying firms analysis, Covington & Burling FARA practice guides, Akin Gump state-level foreign influence analysis, Mayer Brown FARA enforcement reviews, and PRWeek/O'Dwyer's 2024 agency rankings. Disclosed figures are traceable to primary-source filings; modeled estimates are labeled as such.