San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Taps OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for Transition Team to Strengthen Tech Ties

San Francisco's mayor-elect, Daniel Lurie, is bringing in OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to help with his transition team. This move aims to strengthen ties with the tech industry, a crucial part of Lurie’s administration.

Altman, along with nine other local leaders, will guide Lurie’s team on how to innovate and build relationships with key partners in the city.

In his own words, Altman said, “I’m excited to help the city I love, and where OpenAI was started, as it begins its next chapter with Mayor-elect Lurie stepping into his new role.”

Lurie, who comes from the Levi Strauss fortune, has never held an elected office before. He ran against the current mayor, London Breed, as an outsider in San Francisco's tough political scene. His personal investment in his campaign was nearly $9 million.

When Lurie takes office on January 8th, he will face significant challenges, especially the public safety crisis. This is a pressing issue that has driven many tech leaders away from the Bay Area. For instance, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has criticized the city for its public safety failures, despite investing millions there. Similarly, Elon Musk closed X’s downtown office in August due to concerns about crime and drug use. However, Musk's AI startup soon moved into OpenAI’s former office in the Mission District.

These issues have pushed several Silicon Valley leaders to relocate to emerging tech hubs like Miami or Austin, often expressing their frustrations with city officials. A crucial task for the new mayor will be attracting young professionals and convincing current tech entrepreneurs to stay and grow their businesses in San Francisco.

Lurie aims to have Altman play a key role in this effort. He recently referred to Altman as “one of the most important figures on the planet,” expressing his desire for Altman and other tech leaders to help revitalize downtown San Francisco.

Joining Altman on Lurie’s transition team is another Silicon Valley veteran, Ned Segal, the former CFO of Twitter. Segal left Twitter in 2022 after Musk's takeover. Now, he serves on the boards of several venture-backed companies, including Beyond Meat and RingCentral, as well as Lurie’s non-profit, Tipping Point.

Bringing tech executives into political advisory roles seems to be a growing trend. On a national level, President-elect Donald Trump recently announced that Elon Musk would advise the White House to improve efficiency in the federal government. In both cases, Musk and Altman are set to play significant roles in politics while keeping their financial interests intact.

Besides leading OpenAI, Altman previously ran the well-known startup incubator Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019. His experience could help Lurie connect with startups and Y Combinator, especially since its current CEO, Garry Tan, hasn’t fully embraced the new mayor.

Tan tweeted, “If Lurie wins, I will watch his admin like a hawk and he will be relentlessly held accountable by me and all my friends,” criticizing Lurie for using his wealth to outspend his opponents.

Despite his criticism, Tan’s non-profit, Grow SF, endorsed Lurie during the mayoral race. Over the past few years, Tan has taken on a larger role in San Francisco’s politics and is seen as a leader among young founders and engineers in the city.

Lurie may leverage Altman’s influence to win over Tan and other tech entrepreneurs who are skeptical of San Francisco's leadership. On the flip side, Altman might use this opportunity to gain a foothold in politics, a field that OpenAI is gradually becoming more involved in.

Other co-chairs of the transition team include former San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, José A. Quiñonez, founding CEO of the Mission Asset Fund, former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, Nancy Tung, Chief of the Vulnerable Victims Unit at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, and former San Francisco Police Department Commander Paul Yep. Advisors to the transition team include Sara Fenske Bahat, former interim chief executive of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Ann O’Leary, a partner at Jenner & Block, and former San Francisco Controller Ben Rosenfield.