Anthropic Hires Matt Clifford to Lead International Government Affairs

Matt Clifford said in a post on X that he is joining Anthropic as managing director of international affairs, leading the company's work with governments outside North America. He will be based in London and work with governments across Europe, the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

Clifford is an unusually consequential hire for a government affairs role. He wrote the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan in January 2025, and that plan produced the AI Growth Zones, the mechanism the country uses to encourage data centre development in designated areas. The department he wrote it for has since been folded into the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, and officials have confirmed that the growth zone team now reports to the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan.

He also intends to stay on as chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, the UK body modelled on the United States DARPA that funds high risk research, and which he founded. That is the part drawing objection.

Dame Chi Onwurah, who chairs the House of Commons science, innovation and technology committee, said the agency invests taxpayer money in research much of which is AI related or AI enabled, which in her view creates a clear conflict of interest. She has asked the AI minister to set out safeguards and clear boundaries. She also said the move is entirely within the rules and that movement between the public and private sectors should not be discouraged.

The agency said the arrangement was formally reviewed by the department and that mitigations were agreed, including Clifford stepping back from any agency business where a conflict could arise. It noted that its board does not make procurement or programme level spending decisions, which sit with its executive team, and that the arrangement will be kept under continuous review. Anthropic said he would step back from any matter involving the company.

Explaining the move, Clifford said the decisions that shape AI's impact should not be made by any one actor and will take industry, governments and civil society working together, and that people everywhere want real agency over how the technology is built and used in their societies.

The appointment follows a well worn path. Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg joined Meta in 2018, former prime minister Rishi Sunak took advisory roles at Microsoft and Anthropic last year, and former chancellor George Osborne joined OpenAI to work on Stargate.