ChainThink report, October 9: According to CNBC, OpenAI and Anthropic are hiring former officials from the Trump administration in senior roles to strengthen ties with the U.S. government.

As frontier AI technologies are increasingly viewed as national security concerns, both companies are expanding their political affairs strategies, focusing on policy impacts related to regulation, federal procurement, supply chain risk assessment, and export controls.

Anthropic has hired at least two former Trump administration officials this year: Chris Liddell, former Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, joined the board in February;

Sihao Huang, formerly a Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, joined the company in September to lead strategic initiatives in advanced computing power.

OpenAI recently recruited Thomas Lind, Dean Ball, and Peter Bowman-Davis—each previously responsible for White House AI policy, involved in drafting the Trump administration’s “American AI Initiative,” and serving as the Chief AI Officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.

Anthropic previously had public disputes with the U.S. Department of Defense, and its supply chain risk assessment was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals in September.

Subsequently, CEO Dario Amodei has attempted to ease tensions through meetings with Trump and other AI industry executives. Both companies are currently recruiting political affairs positions to increase their influence in shaping U.S. AI policy.