Matt Clifford resigns as ARIA chair to join Anthropic

Matt Clifford has resigned as chair of the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, five days after announcing on X that he was joining Anthropic as managing director of international affairs, leading the company's work with governments outside North America.

He had initially intended to hold both roles. That drew objection from Dame Chi Onwurah, who chairs the House of Commons science, innovation and technology committee, on the grounds that the agency invests taxpayer money in research much of which is AI related, creating what she called a clear conflict of interest.

Clifford announced his resignation on 7 September, saying he had completed his first full term the previous month and was stepping down to ensure the Anthropic role did not become a distraction from the agency's work. The Secretary of State asked him to stay on through a transitional period until 6 November while a process to select a new chair is launched, and he agreed, with safeguards against conflicts in place.

Onwurah welcomed the outcome but not the process. "It's right that the conflict of interest between the taxpayer funded ARIA and Anthropic has been addressed through Matt Clifford's decision to step down as ARIA's Chair," she said in a statement from the committee. She added that important questions remain, that she had written to the government seeking clarity on how the situation arose, what conflict of interest assessments were carried out and what safeguards protect confidence in the agency's governance, and that she expects a detailed response in the coming weeks.

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 founded the research agency he is now leaving, which is modelled on the United States DARPA and funds high risk research.

Explaining the move to Anthropic, 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. He will be based in London and work with governments across Europe, the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

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.