Anthropic, the San Francisco-based artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, said on Thursday it has secured 158,000 square feet of office space at Regent's Place in central London's Knowledge Quarter, a move that would allow it to roughly quadruple its British workforce.
The company currently employs more than 200 people in London, including around 60 AI researchers, making the city one of its most significant operations outside the United States.
The new premises have capacity for approximately 800 people, and Anthropic said the expansion reflects rising demand for Claude among European businesses and software developers.
Pip White, Anthropic's head of sales for northern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the UK combines ambitious companies that understand the stakes of AI safety with an exceptional pool of AI talent.
The move places Anthropic in a neighbourhood already home to Google DeepMind, Meta, the self-driving car company Wayve and the video generation startup Synthesia, reinforcing the Knowledge Quarter's status as one of Europe's densest clusters of AI research.
It also arrives just days after OpenAI, Anthropic's chief rival, announced plans for its first permanent London office, a 544-seat site at Regent Quarter in nearby King's Cross that is due to open in 2027.
The parallel expansions have turned London into contested ground between the two leading American AI companies, both of which now describe the city as their most important research base outside the US.
The backdrop to Anthropic's London push extends well beyond commercial demand.
The company has been locked in a public dispute with the US Department of Defense after refusing to relax restrictions on military applications of its technology, a stance that led the Pentagon to pull a contract and temporarily designate Anthropic a supply chain risk, though a court injunction has since blocked that designation.
President Trump publicly attacked the company's leadership, and the row has given the British government an opening.
Staff at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology drew up proposals to encourage Anthropic to deepen its UK presence, including discussions around a possible dual stock market listing in London, according to reports in the Financial Times.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote to Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei earlier this year to pitch the capital as a stable and pro-innovation base.
Amodei is expected to visit Britain in late May as part of a European tour covering customer and policy meetings.
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Former prime minister Rishi Sunak joined Anthropic as a senior adviser last year, further cementing ties between the company and the British political establishment.
For the UK government, which has no homegrown AI company capable of competing at the frontier, the strategy is to attract the best American laboratories through talent, research partnerships and a welcoming regulatory environment before rival European capitals can do the same.
The recap
- Anthropic secures 158,000 square feet in London’s Knowledge Quarter.
- Office will accommodate about 800 people to support overseas operations.
- New space paves the way for a sizable boost to headcount.