The Other Anthropic Founder Trying to Fix the Company’s ‘Woke’ Reputation
Tom Brown is leveraging his Republican ties and business savvy to win over Washington and secure the computing power Anthropic needs
By
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Oct. 9, 2026 12:36 pm ET
Call him Anthropic’s chief problem solver.
Tom Brown, who was one of the original six to found Anthropic with Dario Amodei, is parlaying his background negotiating deals for the chips needed to train AI models into something even more valuable: the business and political alliances Anthropic needs to pull off an initial public offering that could value it north of $2 trillion.
Where Amodei’s doomy warnings of AI’s risks have frustrated some administration officials, who worry that any pause or excessive regulation threatens to scuttle America’s lead against China, Brown has found common ground. He made peace with Elon Musk, a rival who had once called Anthropic “smug, sanctimonious and hypocritical.”
When the White House forced Anthropic to shut off all access to two of its models due to security concerns, Amodei dispatched his chief compute officer to negotiate with the Trump administration after his own efforts fell short. Brown, a Republican, ended the two-and-a-half-week June standoff by assuring Commerce Department, Pentagon and White House officials that Anthropic understood their security fears and had upgraded its safeguards.
