This report comes from this week's The Tech Download newsletter.

As cutting-edge technologies are increasingly regarded as national security issues, Anthropic and OpenAI are poaching officials from the Trump administration for senior positions, while the AI industry is also vying to strengthen its connections with Washington.

This year, Anthropic has appointed at least two former Trump administration officials, with one joining the board of directors and the other taking on the role of head of its frontier computing power strategy. OpenAI has also recruited at least three individuals from the Trump administration, who are responsible for strategy and special projects, among other tasks.

After the growing public call for regulation and several cybersecurity incidents triggered by out-of-control AI systems, companies at the forefront of development in AI have been vying to establish relationships with President Donald Trump's White House.

"Frontier AI is aware that the Trump administration holds many levers that can affect their business, ranging from federal procurement, supply chain recognition to export controls, and the government is also willing to use these measures,"New American Security Center ( Center for a New American Security ) Technical and National Security Project Visiting Scholar Michelle Nie Duncan indicates.

They have learned from that incident involving Anthropic that it is beneficial to side with the White House.She referred to CNBC. Previously, after an open confrontation between the two sides at the beginning of this year, an appeals court in the United States upheld in September the Pentagon's decision to identify Anthropic as a supply chain risk.

When asked for a comment, OpenAI provided CNBC with statements previously issued regarding two of the previous appointments of Trump officials. Neither Anthropic nor the White House responded to the request for a comment.

Relationship with Trump

Although Trump once referred to AI security concerns as a "scam" and advocated for self-regulation by AI companies, he also stated that the Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies could impose "restraints" on AI.

In particular, Anthropic has been in a rather confrontational relationship with the Trump administration this year, but its CEO, Dario Amodei, has recently been trying to ease tensions with this U.S. president. He attended a lunch meeting between Trump and industry executives from AI, and also dined with Trump in September.

Sihao Huang joined the AI laboratory of Amodei in September, taking on the role of head of frontier computing power strategy. Prior to this, he served as a senior policy advisor for AI and emerging technologies at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy ( OSTP ). His personal website indicates that he is responsible for leading the “AI team of OSTP and coordinating national security, science policy, and semiconductor-related affairs”.

Huang posted on the X platform in September stating that he would be responsible for the infrastructure expansion of Anthropic as well as "planning for rapid progress of AI".

In February, the company also appointed Chris Liddell as a member of the board of directors. Liddell served as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff during Trump's first term.

Anthropic has been accelerating the establishment of AI data center agreements of various scales to ensure the infrastructure necessary for training and providing model services. In August, it was reported that Anthropic had reached a cloud service agreement worth approximately $45 billion with the emerging cloud service provider Nscale.

Leverage

Anthropic and OpenAI are currently also recruiting for several positions related to political affairs.

As companies like OpenAI and Anthropic prepare to become one of the largest IPO in history, many people also see this as an opportunity to participate in a historic event.Nie Duncan indicates. She also added that these companies usually offer more attractive salary packages than the public sector.

These AI laboratories are becoming some of the most influential institutions in the world, and for those officials who truly wish to shape the future of AI governance, much of the real influence today lies within these laboratories.

OpenAI confirmed last week that Thomas Lind, who was previously in charge of AI policies at the National Cyber Director's Office (ONCD), has joined the company, where he is responsible for cyber and strategic risk affairs within its national security policy team. ONCD is the president's chief advisory body for cybersecurity policies and strategies.

OpenAI Head of National Security Policy Team Sasha Baker indicates:"As AI becomes the core of national security agendas, and the National Cyber Directorate plays an increasingly significant role in shaping AI policies, the professional capabilities of [Lind] become even more important."Baker once served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Biden administration.

Dean Ball served as a senior policy advisor at OSTP in 2025 and participated in drafting the flagship plan of the Trump administration, America's AI Action Plan. He joined OpenAI in July and took on the role of head of strategic future initiatives.

OpenAI, the Chief Strategy Officer, stated that Ball will"Help us to test our own assumptions and consider a range of issues, from the impact of cutting-edge security systems with continuously enhanced capabilities on the economy, to the evolving relationships between governments, businesses, and society."

According to the LinkedIn page from Peter Bowman to Davis, OpenAI hired him in March for model training and hardware engineering work. He previously served as the chief AI official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

News Brief

• It is reported that a Ukrainian drone attack caused Russia's internet giant Yandex to suspend the operation of one of its key data centers on Thursday.
• After AI, a startup company in the field of intelligent entities, was forced to abandon its acquisition bid for Meta, it completed its Series A financing, raising over 500 million US dollars.
• An informed source told CNBC that Apollo is in negotiations with several banks regarding financing for the procurement of NVIDIA GPU worth $40 billion for SpaceX.
• Just a month after Google pledged to invest $15 billion per month in Finland's artificial intelligence infrastructure, the company was required to stop two data center projects it was developing there.
• Mistral released a new AI model on Tuesday, claiming that it ranks among the best open-source models in the world. Meanwhile, Western companies are competing to narrow the gap in capabilities with Chinese developers in this market.

There's one more thing.

Microsoft is one of the technology companies with the highest market value in the world, with a market value of nearly $4 trillion.

Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella ( Satya Nadella ), this technology giant continues to consolidate its position as a powerhouse in software and cloud computing.

But as my colleague Jordan Novet wrote, after the AI craze lasted for nearly four years, Microsoft still hasn't found a truly successful product at either the model layer or the application layer.