OpenAI and Anthropic poach Trump officials as industry fights for Washington’s trust

Anthropic and OpenAI are poaching officials from the Trump administration for senior roles as the AI sector scrambles to strengthen ties to Washington, with frontier tech increasingly viewed as a national security issue. This year, Anthropic has appointed at least two former Trump officials, one to its board and another as the head of its frontier compute strategy. OpenAI has hired at least three from the president’s administrations to work across strategy and special projects. Companies developing frontier AI have been racing to build relationships with the U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House, amid growing calls for regulation and in the wake of a number of cybersecurity incidents caused by rogue AI systems.