Why British politicians are flocking to American tech giants | TechCrunch

The AI talent wars show no signs of slowing, with companies making headlines weekly for their latest high-profile hires. This includes engineers they are poaching from each other or acqui-hiring but also, increasingly, senior executives that can support them as they scale up.

Less than 10 days after Slack CEO Denise Dresser became OpenAI’s chief revenue officer, former British finance minister George Osborne announced he was joining Sam Altman’s company. Shortly thereafter, the crypto exchange Coinbase separately appointed Osborne to lead its internal advisory council.

The announcements drew particular attention in the U.K., where commenters noted that Osborne joins a growing list of former British politicians now working for major U.S. tech companies.

If you’re not familiar with him or this trend, here’s what you need to know.

What has Osborne’s career looked like?

A former conservative Member of Parliament, George Osborne served as chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 — a role equivalent to that of a finance minister or treasury secretary in other countries, and currently held by Rachel Reeves.

After Prime Minister David Cameron resigned following the 2016 Brexit vote, Osborne eventually left public office in 2017. Alongside multiple other engagements, including a part-time advisory role for the investment firm BlackRock, he served as editor of the Evening Standard from 2017 to 2020.

During that period, he also co-founded a VC firm, 9yards Capital, with his brother Theo and Theo’s brother-in-law David Fisher as co-founders and managing partners. Several companies in 9yards’ portfolio have gone public since then — including Robinhood, Toast, and Coinbase.

What’s his new role at OpenAI?

Osborne announced on X that he was joining OpenAI “as managing director and head of OpenAI for [C]ountries, based here in London.”He will help expand existing partnerships and build new ones, OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane wrote on LinkedIn.

Introduced in May 2025, OpenAI for Countries is an initiative through which the AI company partners with governments looking to build in-country data center capacity and localize ChatGPT for their language and culture.

OpenAI for Countries is an extension of the Stargate project, a $500 billion initiative through which OpenAI is currently building five new data centers across the U.S. with Oracle and SoftBank. But beyond infrastructure, its stated goal is to “support countries around the world that would prefer to build on democratic AI rails.”

As OpenAI turns 10, it is only natural that it starts hiring the kind of talent that won’t get turned down at the Ritz for wearing sport shoes. An Oxford graduate and the son of a baronet, Osborne fits the bill — but his network and reach are even more valuable, and his podcast with former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls, called “Political Currency,” underscores his extensive political connections.

His track record and contacts could be even more directly relevant for Coinbase, which he was already advising and where he will now “play a much more active role in helping us with policymakers around the world,” the company’s chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad told Reuters.

Staying on the right side of regulators is particularly important for crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, which has been making efforts to influence governments in the U.S. and beyond. But this is also critical for OpenAI, which intends to weigh in as AI gains a foothold in governments’ agendas.

According to Lehane’s LinkedIn post, Osborne’s decision to take the role “reflects a shared belief that AI is becoming critical infrastructure — and early decisions about how it’s built, governed, and deployed will shape economics and geopolitics for years to come.”

The pattern to watch

Osborne’s latest role immediately drew parallels with other high-profile British politicians who went on to join major U.S. tech companies.

These include former U.K. deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who served as Meta’s policy chief for over six years, and, more recently, former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak taking on advisory roles with Microsoft and AI firm Anthropic.

This trend raises different concerns depending on your perspective. Some critics worry about active Members of Parliament like Sunak potentially advocating for U.S. corporate interests while still serving in government. Others take issue with former officials like Osborne leveraging their government experience and connections to secure highly lucrative private sector positions.

The “revolving door” phenomenon between government and the private sector isn’t new. But the practice has attracted heightened scrutiny in Europe, especially when controversial foreign companies — whether tech firms or retailers like Shein — hire former government officials to help navigate regulations and influence policy.

Seen from the other side, this is simply a matter of leveraging skills and experience. In his bio on 9yards’ team page, the VC firm touts that “George devised many regulations that positioned the U.K. as a global fintech leader, including the open banking regime and the FCA ‘sandbox.’”

Others, however, view Osborne’s career moves more critically. They point to his controversial austerity policies as chancellor, and note that he has a history of ethics concerns around the revolving door. For example, when he took the Evening Standard editor job in 2017, he failed to seek approval from the government’s ethics watchdog first — a move that led to the body being criticized as “toothless.” His attitude at the time was telling: “At the age of 45, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life just being an ex-chancellor,” Osborne declared.

Either way, that mindset — transitioning quickly from public service to high-paying private roles — is precisely what makes his OpenAI and Coinbase appointments part of a broader pattern that concerns ethics watchdogs today.