Why British politicians are flocking to American tech giants

Summary

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 his 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. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026 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 ...