Anthropic unveils plans for major UK expansion after OpenAI announces first permanent London office

The maker of the Claude AI chatbot currently has more than 200 people based in London, the company said in a statement.

“London is already one of our most important research and commercial hubs outside the US, and our expansion in the Knowledge Quarter gives us the room to grow into,” Pip White, Anthropic’s head of EMEA north, said in a statement.

“The UK combines ambitious enterprises and institutions that understand what’s at stake with AI safety with an exceptional pool of AI talent — we want to be where all of that comes together.”

Anthropic’s new office space will be located in the Knowledge Quarter area of London, home to a slew of AI companies including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Synthesia and Wayve.

The announcement follows a reported campaign to court Anthropic by U.K. officials, after the company’s spat with the U.S. Pentagon over the use of its AI models.

Anthropic has been gaining momentum recently, releasing its viral coding agent, Claude Code, alongside its Mythos AI model, which excels at identifying weaknesses and security flaws within software.

The company most recently raised $30 billion at a $380 billion valuation in February and has fielded VC offer to invest at an $800 billion valuation, according to reports.

Its annual run-rate revenue has surpassed $30 billion, with more than 1,000 businesses each spending over $1 million annually.