The U.S. Justice Department is taking a direct role in how OpenAI hires. Its Civil Rights Division announced on Wednesday (August 5) that OpenAI and its once-subsidiary Statsig signed a settlement that includes three years of oversight over the AI lab's hiring practices — plus a payment of $3.2 million.
The DOJ alleged that the companies broke provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act by not genuinely looking for qualified U.S. citizens for jobs before sponsoring immigrant workers for permanent residence (PERM), as the law requires. Tactics cited in the case: roles not listed on public job boards, radio ads aired late at night, and paper-only applications that discouraged U.S. applicants. Fewer than ten roles were at issue.
The companies did not admit wrongdoing. Of the $3.2 million, $1.2 million is a fine and $2 million is set aside to pay restitution to U.S. citizens who applied to those jobs, should the DOJ find any who were harmed.
The oversight requires OpenAI and Statsig to draft and obtain approval for their PERM-role hiring policies, and to submit semiannual reports — including how many applications for foreign employees they pursued, how many U.S. citizens they interviewed, and related statistics.
The DOJ says it began investigating both companies separately in August 2025 — five cases at OpenAI between 2023 and 2025, and one at Statsig — before OpenAI acquired the A/B testing company in September 2025 and later divested part of it in May 2026.
The settlement is part of a broader crackdown: during the Biden administration, both Facebook and Apple signed similar settlements, though in those cases the DOJ alleged widespread, systematic violations.
