It is said to have a $1m joining fee and boasts some of technology’s biggest names among its members – including its founder, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. But Silicon Valley’s latest attempt to form a lobbying group has been attacked by rivals in the tech sector as unnecessary political meddling that will ensure a barrage of negative publicity.

The new organisation, to be formally launched in the next few days, marks the first big super-Pac – or political action group – to emerge from the tech industry since the Supreme Court rolled back restrictions on political donations by companies in 2010. Starting out with what insiders estimate is $20m-$25m in seed money from Mr Zuckerberg, it is set to become Silicon Valley’s richest lobby group, with a total fundraising target of $50m.

As its first cause, the as-yet unnamed alliance has taken up immigration reform in order to boost the flow of engineers and other skilled workers to the US.