Tech companies are snapping up former world leaders and politicians — and OpenAI is the latest to join the party.
The ChatGPT maker has hired former British chancellor George Osborne to run the global arm of its Stargate AI infrastructure initiative.
“I recently asked myself the question: what’s the most exciting and promising company in the world right now? The answer I believe is OpenAI,” wrote Osborne, who ran the UK Treasury from 2010 to 2016, in a Tuesday X post confirming the move.
Osborne takes the role of managing director and head of OpenAI for Countries, an initiative launched by the AI startup in May that will see OpenAI partner with nations to build data centers and expand its $500 billion Stargate project beyond the US.
The former finance minister, who was a member of parliament in the right-leaning Conservative party until 2017, is the latest ex-British political heavyweight to join a US tech firm.
Rishi Sunak, the former UK prime minister, took on roles at OpenAI rival Anthropic and Microsoft as an advisor in October, while ex-deputy prime minister Nick Clegg worked as a senior executive on Meta’s global affairs team from 2018 until stepping down at the start of 2025.
British political salaries are dwarfed by the earnings of even midlevel employees at US tech companies. British prime ministers earn an annual salary of around £174,000 ($232,000), while salaries for research engineers at Meta can be as high as $400,000.
Osborne’s arrival comes as OpenAI continues to bulk up its executive ranks. The AI startup hired former Instacart and Meta exec Fidji Simo as its new CEO of applications in May, and this week hired veteran Google executive Albert Lee to lead its mergers and acquisitions team.
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