OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring former Trump administration officials for senior roles as leading AI companies work to strengthen their ties to Washington. The recruitment drive comes as advanced AI becomes a national security priority and government decisions on regulation, cybersecurity, chip exports, and federal contracts increasingly affect the industry.
According to reports, the two companies have collectively hired at least five former administration officials this year. The appointments reflect a growing recognition that political expertise and government relationships are becoming important assets for companies developing advanced AI systems.
Anthropic appointed Chris Liddell, who served as deputy White House chief of staff during Donald Trump’s first administration, to its board of directors in February. In September, it hired Sihao Huang, a former senior policy adviser at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as head of frontier compute strategy.
Huang’s role involves planning the computing infrastructure needed to support increasingly capable AI systems. Access to data centers, advanced chips, and sufficient computing capacity has become a major concern for AI developers seeking to expand their operations.
OpenAI has also recruited former government officials for strategic and technical positions. Dean Ball, a former White House technology policy adviser who helped shape the administration’s AI Action Plan, joined the company in July as head of strategic futures.
Thomas Lind, previously head of AI policy at the Office of the National Cyber Director, joined OpenAI’s national security policy team to oversee cyber and strategic risk. The company also hired Peter Bowman-Davis, formerly chief AI officer at the US Department of Health and Human Services, to work on model training and hardware engineering.
Federal decisions can shape AI companies’ access to government contracts, computing infrastructure, and international markets. Export controls and supply-chain designations can also have direct commercial consequences.
Anthropic has experienced this pressure firsthand. Following a dispute with the Pentagon, a US appeals court upheld the department’s supply-chain risk designation involving the company in September. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has since attended meetings with Trump and other technology executives as the company seeks to improve its relationship with the administration.
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Both companies are also recruiting for political engagement roles. Former officials bring knowledge of policymaking, national security and federal decision-making, while AI firms can offer compensation packages that may exceed public-sector salaries.
The hiring push does not guarantee favorable treatment from Washington. However, it highlights how government relations have become part of the competition between AI developers, alongside model performance, computing resources and customer growth. As US policymakers weigh how to govern advanced AI, OpenAI and Anthropic are building teams to help them navigate decisions that could shape the industry's future.