Justice Department says OpenAI and Statsig discriminated against U.S. workers in hiring, while Anthropic appoints veteran policymaker Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar to navigate mounting regulatory and geopolitical challenges.
OpenAI has agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle allegations by the U.S. Department of Justice that it discriminated against American job applicants by favoring foreign workers holding temporary employment visas, marking one of the most prominent immigration-related enforcement actions against a major artificial intelligence company.
Separately, Anthropic announced a significant expansion of its policy leadership, appointing former California Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar as its first chief global affairs officer as the AI developer confronts mounting regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical tensions surrounding advanced artificial intelligence.
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The twin developments underscore the efforts the world’s leading AI companies are making in navigating legal, political and regulatory challenges alongside intense competition to develop next-generation AI models.
The Justice Department said OpenAI and product development software company Statsig, a subsidiary, agreed to resolve allegations that they violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by discriminating against U.S. workers during recruitment for certain technology positions.
According to the department, the companies favored foreign workers with temporary employment visas by designing recruitment practices that discouraged qualified American applicants from applying.
Federal investigators alleged that U.S. workers seeking some positions were required to submit paper applications through the mail instead of using electronic applications, while some vacancies were advertised only through late-night radio broadcasts and were not posted on publicly accessible employment websites.
The Justice Department said those practices reduced the likelihood that qualified U.S. candidates would learn about or successfully apply for the positions. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the settlement was intended to ensure equal employment opportunities for American workers.
“This substantial settlement ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that U.S. workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions,” Dhillon said.
The department alleged that fewer than 10 positions were directly affected but said the settlement amount reflected the broader harm caused by the companies’ hiring practices.
Under the agreement, OpenAI and Statsig will pay $1.2 million in civil penalties and establish a $2 million compensation fund for individuals allegedly harmed by the discriminatory practices. The companies also agreed to revise their hiring policies, provide employee training and submit to ongoing monitoring by the Justice Department to ensure future compliance with federal employment laws.
OpenAI denied wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.
The case represents one of at least a dozen settlements announced by the Justice Department since last year involving allegations that technology companies discriminated against U.S. workers in favor of foreign employees. However, it is by far the highest-profile case involving a leading artificial intelligence developer.
The enforcement action also aligns with President Donald Trump’s broader immigration agenda, which has sought to reduce what the administration describes as abuse of temporary employment visa programs. Trump has argued that some technology companies rely excessively on H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers instead of recruiting qualified Americans.
Earlier this year, his administration introduced a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, although implementation of the measure has been suspended pending legal challenges.
The settlement comes as AI companies continue to compete aggressively for scarce engineering and research talent, with demand for machine learning specialists remaining exceptionally strong across the technology industry.
Anthropic Appoints Former Judge as Global Policy Head
Meanwhile, Anthropic is strengthening its leadership team to address a rapidly evolving global policy landscape. The Claude developer announced on Tuesday that Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar will become its first chief global affairs officer, a newly created role overseeing government relations and international policy as the company expands worldwide.
Cuéllar will report to Anthropic President Daniela Amodei and will be based at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, where he will lead engagement with U.S. policymakers and governments in markets where Anthropic operates.
The appointment reflects Anthropic’s growing emphasis on public policy as governments around the world accelerate efforts to regulate advanced AI systems.
Before joining Anthropic, Cuéllar led the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until July and previously served as a special assistant in former President Barack Obama’s White House. He also served as a justice on the California Supreme Court.
Since January, Cuéllar has been a member of Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, an independent oversight body established to ensure the company adheres to its public benefit mission. He will step down from that position upon assuming his executive role, and Anthropic said the trust will appoint a replacement.
His background combines legal, national security and AI policy expertise. While leading Carnegie, Cuéllar co-chaired a task force examining U.S. national security and nuclear proliferation, an area that many AI researchers cite as a model for international governance of advanced artificial intelligence.
He also co-led a 2025 study that informed California’s SB 53 legislation, which established protections for AI whistleblowers, imposed incident reporting requirements on major AI developers and authorized penalties of up to $1 million per violation. Anthropic publicly supported the legislation.
In a statement, Cuéllar said governments have reached a pivotal moment in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
“The choices we make today will determine whether humanity can harness extraordinary possibilities to advance science and improve lives across the world or face enormous risk and growing inequality,” he said.
Oren Cass, founder of the conservative think tank American Compass, described Cuéllar as someone capable of working constructively across political divides.
“His approach will be one that provokes good deliberative policymaking with the administration,” Cass told Reuters, adding that Cuéllar would be willing to engage with the Trump administration’s policy priorities while seeking areas of common ground.
Cuéllar assumes the role as Anthropic faces growing pressure from U.S. policymakers over national security and AI governance.
The company has recently been at the center of several high-profile disputes with the federal government. Earlier this year, the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic’s technology following disagreements over military deployment restrictions, a decision the company is challenging in court.
More recently, the Trump administration imposed export controls temporarily preventing Anthropic from selling its most advanced Mythos 5 and Fable 5 AI models to foreign customers, citing national security concerns.