George Osborne has been named the head of OpenAI for Countries.

Osborne, the former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, will lead the generative AI company’s Stargate data center buildout beyond the United States. He will also be tasked with helping governments outside the US use OpenAI tools.

“It’s a privilege to be going to work for OpenAI as managing director and head of OpenAI for countries, based here in London,” Osborne said 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.”

OpenAI launched its ‘for Countries’ Stargate expansion in May, and soon announced a number of projects.

In the United Arab Emirates, OpenAI has turned to Oracle, Cisco, Nvidia, and SoftBank to develop a facility supporting up to 5GW in a project led by G42.

The chair and controlling shareholder of G42, Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is the brother of the UAE president. Tahnoun is also the nation’s national security adviser and chair of Stargate-backer MGX.

In Europe, Nscale and Aker are developing a Stargate Norway project with around 100,000 GPUs, while Nscale is also deploying a smaller 8k GPU Stargate development in the UK, potentially spread across multiple sites.

OpenAI has signed an MoU with SK Telecom to develop an AI data center in the southwest region of South Korea, while OpenAI execs have been spotted touring Asia to scout potential sites in India, Japan, and elsewhere. It has also signed an MoU with Australian data center operator NextDC to open a Stargate facility in Sydney.

A 500MW facility has been promised for Argentina, but the project does not appear to have left the letter of intent stage. Similarly, the company has said it is considering developing in Canada.

From austerity to billions

Osborne, son of baronet and wealthy businessman Sir Peter Osborne, was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2010 as part of the David Cameron-Nick Clegg coalition government.

The Conservative Chancellor presided over a period of austerity, with record cuts to British social services, while reducing taxes for higher-income earners.

The austerity measures, pitched as sorting the nation’s finances, are believed to have worsened the economy and cost the country more. The New Economics Foundation claimed austerity shrunk the British economy by £100 billion by 2019, while The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) claimed that it was linked to 130,000 preventable deaths since 2012.

Osborne kept his role after the coalition ended (Clegg would ultimately work at Meta) during the single-party Cameron administration.

Following the Brexit vote and Cameron’s resignation, Osborne was sacked by successor, Theresa May, in 2016. As a backbencher, he became that year’s highest-earning Member of Parliament due to speaking fees for various financial institutions.

In 2017, Osborne took a job at BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager – earning £650,000 to work one day a week. A month later, while still an MP, he took a simultaneous job as editor of the Evening Standard newspaper.

While he stood down as MP later that year, Osborne added several more roles to his CV – including at VC firm 9Yards, chairman at the British Museum, podcast host of Political Currency, lecturer in management at Stanford University, and a partner at boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw.

He plans to leave his role at Robey Warshaw, now Evercore, but whether his other positions will remain is unclear. Osborne is also an adviser to the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, where OpenAI’s VP of Global Policy Chris Lehane serves on the board.

In October, former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took part-time advisory roles at OpenAI backer Microsoft and at OpenAI rival Anthropic. He remains the MP for Richmond and Northallerton.