Anthropic and OpenAI have hired at least five former Trump administration officials into senior roles this year, as the AI sector works to strengthen ties with Washington amid growing regulatory pressure and national security concerns.
Anthropic and OpenAI have recruited at least five former officials from President Donald Trump's administration into senior roles this year, as the two leading AI labs scramble to build political capital in Washington amid growing calls for regulation and mounting concerns over AI-related cybersecurity incidents.
The hiring push comes as frontier AI is increasingly treated as a national security matter — and as both companies face a regulatory environment shaped in large part by their relationship with the White House.
"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," Michelle Nie Duncan, a visiting fellow with the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, told CNBC. "They have learned from the Anthropic episode that it pays to be on the good side of the White House."
A U.S. appeals court upheld a Pentagon designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk in September, following a public dispute between the two parties earlier in the year. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has since worked to repair the relationship, joining a lunch between Trump and AI executives and dining privately with the president in September.
Anthropic has appointed at least two former Trump officials this year. Sihao Huang, who previously served as a senior policy advisor for AI and emerging technology at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, joined Anthropic in September as head of frontier compute strategy. Huang's website describes his prior role as leading the "AI team at OSTP and coordinating national security, science policy, and semiconductor issues." He said in a post on X that he will focus on Anthropic's infrastructure expansion and planning for rapid AI progress.
In February, Anthropic appointed Chris Liddell — who served as deputy White House chief of staff during Trump's first term — to its board of directors.
OpenAI has brought on at least three former officials from Trump's administrations. Thomas Lind, who led AI policy at the Office of the National Cyber Director, joined OpenAI last week to lead on cyber and strategic risk within its national security policy team. The ONCD serves as the principal advisor to the president on cybersecurity policy and strategy.
Dean Ball, a senior policy advisor at OSTP in 2025 who was involved in drafting the administration's America's AI Action Plan, joined OpenAI in July as head of strategic futures. OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon said Ball would 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."
OpenAI also hired Peter Bowman-Davis in March to work on model training and hardware engineering. Bowman-Davis previously served as Chief AI Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to his LinkedIn page.
Both companies are currently hiring for multiple political engagements roles, reinforcing that the recruiting effort reflects a deliberate strategy rather than opportunistic placements.
Nie Duncan noted that compensation is a significant draw. "With companies like OpenAI and Anthropic gearing up for some of the largest IPOs of all time, many also see this as a chance to be part of something historic," she said, adding that the labs are often able to offer packages well beyond what is available in the public sector.
Trump has called AI safety concerns a "hoax" and has advocated for industry self-regulation, while also saying the Department of Justice and other law enforcement bodies could "rein in" AI — a posture that leaves AI companies with considerable uncertainty about which direction federal policy may take.
The recruitment of administration insiders signals that both Anthropic and OpenAI are betting that proximity to power, rather than public advocacy alone, is the most reliable way to shape the regulatory landscape as Congress heads toward the November 3 midterm elections.
Jay Goldberg is a staff writer at TechEchelon covering technology, markets, and policy. He files the breaking news and deal coverage that move the publication's core desks.
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