Mayor Daniel Lurie raised eyebrows when he announced that Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, as a co-chair for his transition team. Although many expected the mayor to follow through on his promises to seek advice from the tech industry as he attempted to “open San Francisco for business,” the speed with which Lurie cozied up to his wealthy cronies was nonetheless impressive.

Altman is an alumnus of Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley firm becoming known as much for incubating tech startups as for launching young conservatives into San Francisco — and national — politics. Y Combinator is led by Garry Tan, the Pied Piper of right-wing San Francisco who became notorious for wishing a slow and painful death on seven members of the Board of Supervisors. After leaving Y Combinator, Altman founded OpenAI, the company behind the ubiquitous ChatGPT. Originally a nonprofit, OpenAI is no longer, allowing Altman to reward himself with a significant share of what is today a $150 billion company.

As an individual, Altman is a complicated figure. He, like Tan, is a protege of extreme right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel but able to maintain a business and personal relationship with his mentor while professing strong liberal values. His previous opposition to Trump is well documented. 

Having quickly abandoned those liberal views, Altman was among the coterie of tech broligarchs at President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week. Like his fellow techies and San Franciscans Chris Larsen, Elon Musk, David Sacks and Mark Zuckerberg, Altman bought his way into the Trump inner circle. He personally donated $1 million to the Presidential Inaugural Fund (for which he is now facing a Senate inquiry) and is willing to put his mouth where his money is, as seen in the Tweet below. (An “NPC,” in the lingo of online gaming, is a non-player character, a mindless figure without autonomy.)

In the weeks since Trump’s election, Altman has continued his mutation from neoliberal tech bro into a big-money MAGA donor. His transformation begs the question: What is the difference between a “moderate” San Francisco tech mogul and a DC Republican?

After OpenAI’s ChatGPT caught fire, Altman used his newfound status as a billionaire tech mogul to lobby former Mayor London Breed for tax breaks and former President Joe Biden for access to cheaper energy. Neither effort was successful.

That’s all about to change. Days after Altman’s donation, he and Trump stood side-by-side at a press conference announcing a $500 billion public-private partnership to build massive US-based data centers in a venture called Project Stargate. For $1 million Altman will, undoubtedly, benefit from the data centers that fuel artificial intelligence.

At the same time, Altman will have a say in the future of San Francisco. While Trump forced Altman to spend $1 million for access, Mayor Lurie, who has been largely silent in the face of the fascist ascendency in Washington, D.C., granted it without asking for a single cent.

For many voters, Daniel Lurie represented a break from the pay-to-play politics that have plagued City Hall during the tenures of San Francisco’s pro-business mayors. For them, Lurie’s decision to cozy up to Altman, who vigorously lobbied the previous administration for tax breaks, has to be troubling. Altman isn’t the only Trump supporter close to the mayor: Jan Koum, founder and former chief executive of WhatsApp, donated $500,000 to the Lurie campaign (via an independent expenditure committee), and over $5 million towards the now-president’s election committee.

San Francisco is in the midst of a budget crisis, in large part, because four decades of “moderate” mayors invested in a downtown that would be dominated by tech. Today, the city is a de facto “company town,” uniquely vulnerable to the booms and busts typical of the tech industry. It should be noted that San Francisco is a strong mayor city, meaning that Lurie has almost complete control over the budget.

AI represents only the latest “new, new thing” in an industry rife with them. When Lurie, a self-proclaimed champion of responsible budgeting, faces hard choices on how to solve the budget deficit, will he double-down on supporting the burgeoning AI sector at the behest of his advisor Sam Altman? Or will he invest in the San Franciscans who will be here long after the tech bros abandon the city for greener pastures? More importantly, will he stand up for San Francisco’s most vulnerable when they come under attack by a presidential administration determined to scapegoat the country’s problems on everyone but its base? Or will he defer to his — and Trump’s — supporters?

For now, these questions will remain unanswered. Still, it’s important to know who has a seat at Lurie’s table.