OpenAI and Anthropic hire Trump officials for policy roles

OpenAI and Anthropic are assembling teams of former Trump administration officials as AI companies race to influence U.S. policy on their industry. The hiring spree reflects how frontier AI development has become entangled with national security strategy and regulatory leverage in Washington.

• Anthropic appointed two Trump officials: Sihao Huang as head of frontier compute strategy in September and Chris Liddell to its board in February.
• OpenAI hired at least three former Trump administration staffers, including Thomas Lind to lead cyber and strategic risk policy in recent weeks.
• Both companies are actively recruiting for political engagement roles as they prepare for major IPOs and seek to shape AI governance from within.

• 2 Trump officials Anthropic appointed to senior roles this year
• 3 Former Trump administration staffers hired by OpenAI across strategy roles
• $45B Cloud infrastructure deal Anthropic struck with Nscale in August
• $4T Microsoft’s market capitalization, largest AI-invested tech company

Frontier AI companies are mobilizing within Washington’s corridors of power, according to reporting by CNBC. Anthropic and OpenAI have each brought on multiple senior officials from the Trump administration, a pattern driven by the sector’s need to court political favor as AI development faces heightened scrutiny on national security grounds. The moves underscore how thoroughly AI governance has become enmeshed with executive branch decision-making, from federal procurement to export controls and supply-chain designations.

Anthropic builds bridges after Pentagon clash

Anthropic has recruited Sihao Huang, formerly a senior policy advisor for AI and emerging technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as head of frontier compute strategy beginning in September. According to Huang’s website, he led the AI team at OSTP and coordinated national security, science policy, and semiconductor issues. He will oversee Anthropic’s infrastructure expansion and planning for rapid AI progress, roles that place him at the nexus of the company’s technical and regulatory ambitions.

The company also appointed Chris Liddell, who served as deputy White House chief of staff during Trump’s first term, to its board of directors in February. Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration had grown strained earlier in the year following a public dispute, culminating in a U.S. appeals court decision in September upholding a Pentagon designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk. CEO Dario Amodei has since moved to repair those ties, joining a lunch between Trump and other AI executives and dining with the president in September.

OpenAI assembles national security team from federal ranks

OpenAI has drawn at least three former Trump administration officials into key roles spanning strategy and national security policy. Thomas Lind, who led AI policy at the Office of the National Cyber Director, recently joined OpenAI to lead cyber and strategic risk on its national security policy team. The ONCD advises the president on cybersecurity policy and strategy, making Lind’s transition significant as AI moves toward the center of national security deliberations.

Dean Ball, who served as a senior policy advisor at OSTP in 2025 and helped draft the Trump administration’s flagship America’s AI Action Plan, joined OpenAI in July as head of strategic futures. OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon said Ball will help the company “pressure-test our assumptions and think through issues ranging from frontier safety and the economic impacts of increasingly capable systems to the evolving relationship between governments, companies, and society.” Peter Bowman-Davis, formerly Chief AI Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also joined OpenAI in March to work on model training and hardware engineering.

Frontier AI companies are aware that the Trump administration has a lot of levers over their business, from federal procurement and supply-chain designations to export controls and everything in between, and that it’s willing to use them. They have learned from the Anthropic episode that it pays to be on the good side of the White House.

Michelle Nie Duncan, visiting fellow with the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, told CNBC

Political talent and IPO ambitions draw White House veterans to AI labs

Both Anthropic and OpenAI are actively hiring for multiple political engagement roles, signaling their commitment to sustained Washington presence as the companies prepare for what analysts expect to be landmark initial public offerings.

The recruitment extends beyond single appointments. Nie Duncan noted that companies preparing for some of the largest IPOs of all time view hiring federal officials as an investment in institutional credibility and historic significance. She emphasized that AI labs offer federal policymakers rare leverage over the technology’s governance: “The AI labs are becoming some of the most consequential institutions in the world, and for officials who are serious about shaping the future of AI governance, inside the labs is where a lot of leverage currently lies.” OpenAI and Anthropic can also offer compensation packages that exceed public sector options.

Trump has sent contradictory signals on AI regulation, calling AI safety concerns a “hoax” and favoring industry self-regulation while also saying the Department of Justice and law enforcement could “rein in” AI.

The BlockWest read. The hiring reflects asymmetric leverage in the policy relationship: both companies face concrete regulatory risks from a White House that controls procurement, export rules, and supply-chain designations, while offering federal officials unprecedented access to the world’s most advanced AI systems. The talent migration also signals that AI governance will be shaped as much inside company strategy rooms as in government offices, a reality that shifts where consequential decisions about AI safety and deployment actually occur.

Anthropic and OpenAI have not publicly detailed their political engagement strategies or the specific mandates of their new hires beyond the role descriptions already disclosed. Watch for whether either company releases formal statements on government relations policy, and track upcoming congressional testimony or regulatory filings that might reveal how these officials are influencing their firms’ compliance and advocacy positions.

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