Trump’s targeting of USAID puts OpenAI’s agency work in doubt

After touting a ChatGPT Enterprise use case with USAID, it’s not clear what’s next for the AI company and the disappearing agency.

By Rebecca Heilweil

February 10, 2025

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This photo illustration shows the ChatGPT logo at an office in Washington, DC, on March 15, 2023. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

The collateral damage of the Trump administration’s destruction of USAID may include a planned offering from one of the country’s most powerful artificial intelligence companies.

FedScoop reported last year that USAID was the first customer for OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise. At the time, Vice President of Global Affairs Anna Makanju said the technology would “reduce administrative burdens for staff” and “make it easier for new and local organizations to partner with USAID.” Samantha Power, USAID’s administrator during the Biden administration, also met with Makanju in 2024.

There were also discussions within the agency about sponsoring OpenAI’s federal authorization through FedRAMP, the program that helps standardize the cybersecurity review of government cloud products, according to two sources. Those conversations appeared to come from the growing working relationship between the agency and the large language model developer.

As the Trump administration’s targeting of USAID continues, it’s unclear what will happen to OpenAI’s pilot program — or if the company, whose generative AI platform is in high demand, will find an alternative path to gaining a FedRAMP authorization. Large swaths of the information technology team at USAID remain on administrative leave, according to one source.

Just last month, OpenAI said it would continue to pursue authorization through FedRAMP while also announcing a new service called ChatGPT Gov. No service directly offered by OpenAI is currently listed in the FedRAMP Marketplace, though federal agencies can use the company’s GPT-4o model through Microsoft’s Azure Government cloud.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

The company’s uncertain status with FedRAMP isn’t the only potential AI-related casualty with the program. With the rescission of the Biden administration’s executive order on artificial intelligence, an emerging technology framework established by FedRAMP — and meant to prioritize generative AI — was abruptly shut down.