Former chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has announced he will join OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries.

Making the announcement on social media platform X, Osbourne called OpenAI one of the most exciting and promising companies in the world.

He joins the firm from investment bank Evercore, where he works as senior managing director.

Osborne held the role of chancellor of the exchequer from May 2010 until July 2016, serving in David Cameron’s Conservative government.

He also held the role of fist secretary of state from May 2015 until July 2016.

Osborne was first elected as a member of parliament in 2001 and served as shadow chancellor from 2004 until 2010.

After he left parliament, Osborne took up the role of editor of the Evening Standard newspaper.

He currently holds several roles including chairman of the British museum, advisor to cryptocurrency firm Coinbase, and acts as host of a podcast with former Labour minister Ed Balls.

In his new role, Osborne will be based in London and advise governments on the rollout of AI technology at a national level.

“This opportunity to be part of the path to the future that OpenAI is blazing was impossible to resist,” Osborne wrote on X. “In my conversations with Sam Altman, Brad Lightcap, and other senior colleagues, it’s clear they are exceptionally impressive leaders and that they care very deeply about their mission to ensure the power of artificial intelligence is developed responsibly, and the benefits are felt by all.”

In September, OpenAI named Mike Liberatore, previously finance chief at Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture xAI, as its new business finance officer.

Liberatore will oversee OpenAI’s infrastructure spending and report to chief financial officer Sarah Friar, working closely with Greg Brockman’s team to scale the company’s access to compute resources.

---