The chief global affairs role is based at the company's San Francisco headquarters, and Cuéllar will report to Anthropic President Daniela Amodei.
His main task is managing Anthropic's relations with the U.S. government and with other countries where the company is expanding. That is not an easy assignment right now.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic's technology after a dispute over military-use red lines, and the company is contesting that action in court. Then, citing national security, a Trump administration export-control directive temporarily halted international sales of Anthropic's top-tier Mythos 5 and Fable 5 systems.
Cuéllar is walking into those fights with a resume built for exactly this kind of work.
Cuéllar, known as Tino, has moved between government and policy work. He was a special assistant in the Obama White House and served on California's highest court.
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He led the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until July and co-led a task force focused on American security and nuclear-weapons proliferation. Some AI industry leaders see nuclear arms control as a template for managing AI risk, which makes that part of his background relevant.
One detail worth knowing: Cuéllar has been on Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust since January. That independent four-person body is responsible for keeping the company true to its public benefit mission, and it will now look for someone to replace him.
Reuters reported that Oren Cass, who leads the conservative group American Compass, thinks Cuéllar will be open to Trump administration positions and will tackle the underlying causes of friction. Cass, who said he and Cuéllar met years ago and later organized bipartisan lunches, called him pragmatic and progressive. "His approach will be one that provokes good deliberative policymaking with the administration," Cass told Reuters.
Cuéllar also has a record of turning AI worries into rules. Anthropic supported SB 53.
His own hopes run bigger than any one bill. "The choices we make today will determine whether humanity can harness extraordinary possibilities to advance science and improve lives across the world or face enormous risk and growing inequality," Cuéllar said in a statement.
Anthropic declined to make him available for an interview.
The SB 53 episode also shows the overlap between Cuéllar's public-policy work and Anthropic's own agenda.
The government pressure Anthropic is facing is not just background noise. The Pentagon blacklist and the export-control action against Mythos 5 and Fable 5 are shaping what Anthropic can sell, who can buy it, and how fast it can grow.
Creating a senior role for someone whose job is mostly diplomacy sends a clear message. Political relationships are now a core business requirement, not a side issue.
For anyone with money in AI-related stocks, that is the part to watch. The next breakthroughs may happen in a lab, but Washington and California are writing the rules that decide who gets to use them.
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