Tech download: OpenAI and the reclusive Trump official

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Anthropic and OpenAI are poaching executive positions from the Trump administration as the AI ​​sector rushes to strengthen ties with Washington and frontier technologies increasingly become a national security issue.

This year, Anthropic appointed at least two former Trump administration officials, one to its board of directors and another to lead its frontier computing strategy. OpenAI has hired at least three people from the presidential administration to work on strategy and special projects.

Companies developing frontier AI are racing to build relationships with President Donald Trump’s White House after growing calls for regulation and numerous cybersecurity incidents caused by rogue AI systems.

“Frontier AI companies are aware that the Trump administration has a lot of influence over their businesses, from federal procurement and supply chain designations to export controls and everything in between, and they are eager to take advantage of them,” said Michelle Nie Duncan, visiting fellow in the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.

“They learned from this episode of Anthropic that it pays to be on the good side of the White House,” she told CNBC. After a public spat between the two companies earlier this year, a U.S. appeals court in September upheld the Department of Defense’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk.

When asked for comment, OpenAI referred CNBC to previously released statements about two former official Trump appointees. Antropic and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump called concerns about AI safety a “hoax” and advocated self-regulation for AI companies, but said the Justice Department and other law enforcement agencies could “curb” AI.

Anthropic has had a particularly hostile relationship with the Trump administration this year, but CEO Dario Amodei has recently sought to smooth relations with the U.S. president. He attended a luncheon with Trump and AI executives and a meal with Trump in September.

Sihao Huang joined Amodei’s AI Lab in September as Head of Frontier Computing Strategy. He previously served as a senior policy advisor for AI and emerging technologies in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Fan’s website says he was responsible for “leading OSTP’s AI team and coordinating national security, science policy, and semiconductor issues.”

In a September post on X, Huang said he would work to expand Anthropic’s infrastructure and “plan for rapid advancements in AI.”

In February, the company appointed Chris Liddell, who served as acting White House chief of staff during the Trump administration’s first term, to its board of directors.

Anthropic has been competing in a variety of AI data center deals, large and small, to secure the infrastructure needed to train and service its models. Anthropic signed a roughly $45 billion cloud deal with Neocloud Nscale, CNBC reported in August.

Anthropic and OpenAI are also currently recruiting for multiple political engagement roles.

“Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are gearing up for the biggest IPOs in history, and many see this as an opportunity to be part of something historic,” Ní Duncan said, adding that these companies can often offer attractive compensation packages that are not possible in the public sector.

“The AI ​​Institute is becoming one of the most important institutions in the world, and there is now a lot of influence within the Institute for officials serious about shaping the future of AI governance.”

OpenAI last week confirmed that Thomas Lind, who led AI policy at the Office of the National Cyber ​​Director (ONCD), has joined the company to lead cyber and strategic risks on the national security policy team. ONCD is the President’s principal advisor on cybersecurity policy and strategy.

“As AI becomes central to the national security agenda and the Office of the National Cyber ​​Director plays an increasing role in shaping AI policy, (Lind’s) expertise becomes even more important,” said Sasha Baker, who leads OpenAI’s national security policy team and served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy in the Biden administration.

Dean Ball, who served as senior policy advisor at OSTP in 2025 and helped draft the Trump administration’s flagship American AI Action Plan, joined OpenAI in July as director of strategic futures.

Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, said Ball will “help us pressure test our assumptions and consider issues ranging from frontier security and the economic impact of increasingly sophisticated systems to the evolving relationship between government, business, and society.”

OpenAI also hired Peter Bowman-Davis in March to work on model training and hardware engineering, according to its LinkedIn page. He previously served as Chief AI Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Russian internet giant Yandex suspended operations at one of its major data centers on Thursday due to a Ukrainian drone attack.

AI agent startup Manus has raised more than $500 million in its first funding round since Meta was forced to abandon its acquisition of the company.

Apollo and several banks are in talks to finance SpaceX’s $40 billion purchase of Nvidia GPUs, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.

google A month after the tech giant pledged to invest $15 billion in the country’s artificial intelligence infrastructure, the company has been ordered to halt work on two data centers it is developing in Finland.

Mistral on Tuesday unveiled a new AI model that it said ranks among the world’s best open models, as Western companies race to close the capability gap with Chinese developers in the market.

microsoft is one of the world’s most valuable technology companies, with a market capitalization approaching $4 trillion.

Under CEO Satya Nadella, the tech giant continues its rise as a software and cloud powerhouse.

But as my colleague Jordan Novet writes, nearly four years after the AI ​​boom began, Microsoft has yet to find a breakthrough hit at the model or application layers.

Can Nadella change that? Jordan gets to the heart of the matter.