OpenAI and Anthropic are competing to recruit former Trump administration officials, as the AI industry accelerates its efforts to secure support from Washington.

According to CNBC, OpenAI and Anthropic are recruiting former Trump administration officials for senior roles to strengthen their ties with the U.S. government. As advanced AI technology is increasingly viewed as a national security issue, both companies are ramping up their political affairs operations to address policy impacts including regulation, federal government procurement, supply chain risk designations, and export controls. So far this year, Anthropic has hired at least two former Trump administration officials: former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell joined its board in February, and Sihao Huang, a former senior policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), joined the company in September to lead its advanced computing strategy. OpenAI has also recently hired several former government officials, including Thomas Lind (who oversaw AI policy at the White House Office of the National Cyber Director), Dean Ball (who helped draft the Trump administration’s “American AI Initiative”), and Peter Bowman-Davis (former chief AI officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Anthropic previously had a public conflict with the U.S. Department of Defense, and in September, a U.S. appeals court upheld its supply chain risk designation. Since then, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has recently met with Trump and other AI industry executives to try to ease tensions with the administration. Analysts note that as AI companies face increasingly complex regulatory and national security requirements, government relations have become a key part of industry competition. Both companies are currently hiring multiple political affairs-related roles to gain greater influence in U.S. AI policy-making.