OpenAI brought on several senior executives in October to expand its public-sector work, after more than 1 million federal employees gained access to ChatGPT over the past year.

Jamil Jaffer, founder of the National Security Institute and George Mason University’s AI & Innovation Institute, will lead global government cyber work, drawing on national security experience in Congress and the Justice Department.

Peter Guerra, who previously led Oracle’s government, defense and intelligence data and AI work, will help agencies move generative AI from pilots into operational use.

Yvette Cesario, formerly a national security leader at Amazon Web Services, will lead OpenAI’s engagement with the intelligence community.

Megha Bhattacharya joined as public sector lead for policy communications after serving in the Biden-Harris Administration, including in the White House press office and State Department.

The hires build on OpenAI’s appointment of former U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll as senior counselor for national security modernization.

OpenAI’s government push is unfolding as agencies expand access to AI: in August 2026, the Pentagon made a specialized ChatGPT version available through GenAI.mil, which offers tools from Google, OpenAI and xAI to as many as 3 million military and civilian users.

OpenAI has also grown its government business through GSA’s OneGov purchasing program, with a multi-year OneGov 2.0 agreement introducing discounted token-based pricing and eliminating monthly platform fees starting October 1, 2026.

OpenAI said it onboarded 50 government agencies in September and October, while GovTribe data showed more than $550 million in potential contract value across awards to agencies including Treasury, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Labor and Education.