What the AI Industry Gains from Hiring Former Biden Officials

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In 2018, the residents of Newton County, Georgia woke up to a new interloper—tech giant Meta—beginning construction on a $750 million data center that would reportedly upend their lives for the worse. Meta’s data center, completed in 2024, consumes roughly 500,000 gallons of water daily, the equivalent of around 10% of the county’s total water use per day. Meanwhile, residents have been left to grapple with issues like water wells running dry, sediment buildup in groundwater, and soaring electricity prices.

“I can’t drink the water,” resident Beverly Morris told BBC news. By 2030, Newton County expects to face a water deficit.

The area serves as a microcosm of the stark problems being experienced nationwide as a result of the accelerated buildout of AI-powering data centers.

Perhaps it’s unsurprising then that local opposition to AI data centers has mushroomed across the U.S., with poll after poll indicating that a majority of Americans do not support the construction of data centers in their communities.

But the alarming troubles generated by AI data centers—noise pollution, air pollution, water scarcity, rising energy costs, increased emissions of climate change-driving greenhouse gases, and other environmental and land impacts—do not even scratch the surface of concerns associated with the actual application of AI like compounding systemic racism, enabling worker surveillance, and assisting genocide.

As tech giants continue to pour astronomical sums of money into the AI boom, Americans have made it clear that most are worried about AI’s burgeoning role in society and favor strong regulation. The AI industry has met the public outcry around data centers with a lobbying blitz and political war chest flexing, aiming to stave off guardrails and shape government action on AI.

Public backlash against AI and its massive data centers has created an elephant in the room that Democrats cannot continue to ignore. As Shaunna Thomas recently wrote for Common Dreams, Democrats must pick a side. They can either stand idly by while Silicon Valley profits from the unfettered extraction of the planet’s finite resources, or loudly and vigorously stand up to Big Tech in order to defend everyday people.

Waging a successful fight against Silicon Valley will require that a future Democratic administration not be staffed with high-level revolvers from AI industry firms, especially in AI policy or procurement-focused roles. That is why we at the Revolving Door Project launched our Biden AI Revolvers tracker last week, identifying over 100 former senior-level Biden officials who have joined the AI industry.

This newsletter takes a closer look at some of the top firms Biden-era staffers have flocked to, the real-world impacts of their operations, and their political playbooks, underscoring why it would be a major fumble to welcome these revolvers back into the upper echelons of a future Democratic administration.

OpenAI: 22 Biden Revolvers

Among all the employers in our tracker, OpenAI has hired the most Biden alumni of any AI firm, with a total count of 22 revolvers as of the time of writing. The company has plenty of reasons to try to ease government oversight in a potential future Democratic administration.

For one, there are several pending lawsuits accusing the company of designing a defective product that encourages suicide. OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, has publicly denied such allegations while attempting to position itself as a responsible corporate actor that purportedly cares about child safety. The company’s lobbying efforts, however, paint a different picture.

OpenAI is partnered with pro-industry advocacy groups like Chamber of Progress and TechNet, both of which lobbied against California’s AB 1064, a bill that would have limited children’s access to AI chatbots unless they were “not foreseeably capable” of causing harm. The bill was ultimately vetoed by California Governor Gavin Newsom due to opposition by the AI industry. OpenAI then founded and funded a PAC called the Parents & Kids Safe AI Coalition to gather support for a compromise initiative, which has been met with accusations of astroturfing.

At the federal level, OpenAI has been aggressively pushing for preemption of state AI laws. In the first half of 2026 alone, the company has spent $2.22 million on federal lobbying and paid $660,000 to outside firms to lobby on its behalf.

Alongside its lobbying spree, OpenAI executives have been looking to shape the 2026 midterms to their advantage by founding and funding a super PAC called Leading the Future, which supports AI-friendly candidates on both sides of the political aisle.

As we found in our tracker, OpenAI hired Biden officials from across the executive branch, including former staffers who worked in the Commerce Department, Defense Department, Justice Department, Treasury Department, and White House. These former officials bring a fountain of knowledge that any AI company would find invaluable. Two staffers joined OpenAI after working in the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office, the office responsible for supercharging chip manufacturing for defense programs and AI: Morgan Dywer, who directed the construction of “a $39 billion investment portfolio and served on the program’s investment committee,” and Benjamin Schwartz, who led the office’s National Security Division.

OpenAI’s revolvers could also give them a leg up in defense contracting, as the company hired former defense officials to work on national security policy, including: Katrina Mulligan, who worked as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Ops and Low Intensity Conflict, and now heads OpenAI’s national security partnerships with the government, and Sasha Baker, who served both at the Defense Department and the National Security Council, and now works in national security policy at OpenAI.

Anthropic: 14 Biden Revolvers

Founded by ex-OpenAI employees and backed by Amazon and Google, Anthropic has branded itself as the ethical alternative to its competitors. It is anything but.

In lockstep with OpenAI, Anthropic has embraced members of the Biden administration with open arms. It ranks as the second most popular destination for AI revolvers with a total count of 14 springing from the Commerce Department, Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and White House.

Like OpenAI, Anthropic’s ramped-up political influence operations have prioritized national security (indeed, both OpenAI and Anthropic announced agreements with federal agencies to use their models) and AI infrastructure (they both pushed for fast-tracking federal permitting of data centers).

Anthropic has hired formed Biden officials knowledgeable in these issues, including Joel Meyer (who held multiple senior leadership positions at Homeland Security, where he “implemented the Department’s first AI task force,” and now heads Anthropic’s federal civilian public sector work) and former National Security Council staffers Tarun Chhabra, Benjamin Della Rocca, and Kristine Lee.

Anthropic isn’t pumping the brakes on its lobbying efforts any time soon. In the first half of 2026, Anthropic spent $3.53 million on federal lobbying and paid outside firms, including Trump-linked Ballard Partners, a combined total of $1.54 million to lobby on its behalf.

On May 6, Anthropic donated $250,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association. This comes in the wake of attorneys general, both Democrat and Republican, moving to crack down on AI companies over user safety concerns, including harms to children.

What’s more, both Anthropic and OpenAI have partnered with RAISE US, a nonprofit co-led by Biden’s Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, that effectively wants workers to accept the fact that AI will displace them and undergo retraining to develop an AI-focused skillset. The nonprofit is already collaborating with Arkansas governor and Trump ally Sarah Huckabee Sanders on an AI-run career site.

Meta: 9 Biden Revolvers

Ranking third in our list of landing spots, tech titan Meta has absorbed 9 Biden-era staffers who all hail from the State Department or White House.

Notable revolvers from the State Department include Molly Montgomery, who was Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and is now Director of Public Policy at Meta; Alicia Romano, who held multiple State Department roles and served as Senior Advisor to the Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Tech on the National Security Council and now manages Meta’s public policy work; and Steven Schram, who likewise held various State Department roles and currently manages Meta’s Child Safety Project.

Palantir: 3 Biden Revolvers

Palantir’s work for the Trump administration and ICE, including creating an AI-integrated application for purposes of extracting and mapping the locations of people who may be undocumented, has been a focal point in protests against ICE’s reign of terror. But as a government contractor boasting mega contracts with the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Internal Revenue Service, and Transportation Department, the controversial company is likely eager to continue its government relationships under a future Democratic administration.

To date, the company has brought two former Biden officials with experience in national security into the fold: Thomas Puppi, who worked in several different positions at the Defense Department, most recently as Director for Cyber Plans & Operations, and is now Senior Counselor at Palantir, and Jared Lang, who held various government roles, including most recently as Policy Advisor at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Under Secretary for Policy, and now serves as Palantir’s Deployment Strategist.

Other AI Industry Players

The AI industry goes beyond the four companies spotlighted herein. It is a vast network upheld by deeply monied interests, spanning new entrants developing frontier AI models like OpenAI, Anthropic, and SpaceXAI; seasoned tech behemoths like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Oracle; chip manufacturers like Nvidia; defense contractors like Palantir, Anduril, and the “Big Five”; industry-backed groups like RAISE US; lobbyists like Chamber of Progress and TechNet; consulting entities like CACI International; and venture capital firms with significant investments in AI like Andreessen Horowitz.

Unpacking the entire politically entrenched apparatus behind the AI industry is beyond the scope of this newsletter, but the takeaway remains the same: if Democrats want to follow through on the values they claim to uphold, and stand up for working people against AI’s encroachment, it can’t be Silicon Valley Democrats setting the terms of AI policy and regulation.

A future Democratic administration actually committed to protecting the public must crack down on the AI industry’s harmful excesses, as is consistent with what the majority of Americans desire, and redirect resources towards healthcare, education, good jobs, better infrastructure, and other programs that uplift working people.

We’ll continue to periodically update our Biden AI Revolvers tracker. If there is information in the tracker you believe to be incorrect or additions you would like to suggest, please reach out to info[at]therevolvingdoorproject.org.

Follow the Revolving Door Project’s work on whatever platform works for you! You can find us on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Want more? Check out some of the pieces that we have published or contributed research or thoughts to in the last week:

Tracking the Revolving Door Between AI and Former Biden Officials

Map: Trump Has Often Delayed or Denied Disaster Aid

AI Villains and the Trump Administration: Dean Ball

AI Villains and the Trump Administration: Jacob Helberg

Union Sues TSA Over Secret Plan to Privatize Security

GOP Senate Shit Show: Focusing on Fauci Instead of Cyclospora Diarrhea Disaster

We Need to Unrig the System

World roundup: August 1-2 2026

Trump’s New White House Lawyer Embodies MAGA Mold in Second Term

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Image: Former president Joe Biden drops by a meeting between former vice president Kamala Harris and AI CEOs on May 4, 2023. Credit: Photo by Biden White House Archived, U.S. Government Work