Rishi Sunak takes Microsoft and Anthropic advisory jobs

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has been appointed as a senior adviser by Microsoft and artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, the latest British politician to trade Whitehall for Silicon Valley.

Sunak, who remains a UK MP, worked with both tech groups as the UK premier, setting up an AI safety summit in 2023.

The former Conservative leader on Thursday said he had “long believed that technology will transform our world”.

“In my role as a senior adviser, I want to help these companies ensure that this shift delivers the improvements in all of our lives that it can,” he added.

Sunak’s twin appointments mean he will be advising rivals in the push for AI breakthroughs. Microsoft is working on its own AI tools and is a key backer of Anthropic’s chief competitor OpenAI.

He follows former deputy prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg in taking a post at a leading technology company. Clegg was Meta’s president of global affairs until earlier this year.

Sunak will donate his pay from the positions to The Richmond Project, a charity he established with his wife Akshata Murty, who owns a stake in the technology company Infosys, founded by her father.

Anthropic and Microsoft have pledged Sunak will be “appropriately ringfenced and separated from any lobbying activity” including with the UK government, according to the UK Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), a watchdog that oversees business appointments for former ministers and senior civil servants.

Anthropic is competing with OpenAI and Big Tech companies including Google and Meta to develop AI models. The company, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, pitches itself as a safer alternative to rivals and has focused on selling its AI models to businesses.

Anthropic said: “[Sunak] was among the first global leaders to recognise AI’s transformative potential, establishing the world’s first AI Safety Institute and convening the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. His experience will provide valuable strategic perspective.”

The AI start-up has hired a number of former politicians and political advisers from the US and UK, including Sunak’s former chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith and Tarun Chhabra and Elizabeth Kelly, two senior US officials under former president Joe Biden.

Anthropic’s appointment of high-profile figures close to the former president marks a contrast with rivals, who have sought closer ties to President Donald Trump.

At Microsoft, Sunak will provide the software giant with “high-level strategic perspectives” on geopolitical trends and will also appear at the company’s annual summit, according to correspondence published by Acoba.

The former prime minister will continue in his post advising Goldman Sachs, the US bank where he worked as an analyst before he entered politics.

Microsoft said it “look[s] forward to working with” Sunak, adding it works with advisers from a range of industries and is “thankful for their expertise and insights”.