Microsoft recruits Rishi Sunak as senior adviser
Microsoft hired Rishi Sunak after telling the former prime minister he should not lobby the Government on the firm’s behalf.
Mr Sunak joined the American tech giant as a paid part-time senior adviser to speak at events and give company leaders “high-level strategic perspectives on macro-economic and geopolitical trends and how they intersect with innovation, regulation and digital transformation”.
He will not advise on UK policy matters, according to the Acoba (Advisory Committee on Business Appointments) report.
Mr Sunak served as prime minister between October 2022 and July 2024.
After his general election defeat last year, it was thought he might look for a job in California’s Silicon Valley.
But in his final prime ministerial questions as Conservative Party leader, Mr Sunak promised to spend more time in “the most beautiful place in the world”, referring to his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton, adding: “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in Yorkshire.”
Business appointments watchdog Acoba said Mr Sunak should not be advising Seattle-based Microsoft or on its behalf on public works or contracts until late next year.
He was also asked not to lobby the Government or use his Whitehall connections during this period and to limit his work to “providing advice on strategy, macroeconomic and geopolitical matters that do not conflict” with his activities at No 10.
The Cabinet Office told Acoba that Mr Sunak’s more than a year on the opposition benches would “help reduce the salience and timeliness of the information” he had access to.
Microsoft chief Brad Smith called on Mr Sunak to “look carefully” at competition rules when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the firm’s takeover of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard in 2023.
Mr Smith said the move had eroded “confidence” in the UK, and Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said at the time that “such claims are not supported by facts”.
Microsoft later completed a deal with CMA clearance.
Mr Sunak also worked at San Francisco-based Anthropic, which developed Claude artificial intelligence (AI) models.
He also became a senior advisor at Goldman Sachs after leaving the position where he previously worked between 2001 and 2004.
