Anthropic will move into a new United Kingdom office that could allow it to nearly quadruple its London headcount, amid the UK government’s efforts to court the company.
The 158,000 square foot London office includes space for 800 employees, and is located in the Knowledge Quarter district. Anthropic currently has over 200 people based in London, it said.
“London is already one of our most important research and commercial hubs outside the U.S., and our expansion in the Knowledge Quarter gives us the room to grow into,” said Anthropic head of EMEA north Pip White.
“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.”
The Knowledge Quarter area in central London also includes offices from OpenAI, Meta, and Google DeepMind.
Anthropic aims to release its new Claude Mythos artificial intelligence model to UK financial institutions within the next week. Claude Mythos specialises in identifying security flaws in software, according to the company.
The UK government has reportedly encouraged Anthropic to expand in the country. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology had drawn up proposals including an office expansion and a dual listing, per the Financial Times, and planned to submit them to Anthropic in May.
These efforts reportedly intensified due to the United States Department of Defense’s attacks on Anthropic. The Pentagon named Anthropic a supply chain risk after the company said it would not let the U.S. military use its AI products for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous weaponry.
Anthropic’s announcement also comes after rival OpenAI said it would increase its presence in the UK OpenAI said in February that it would expand its London research team into its largest outside the U.S.
Meanwhile, Anthropic has received offers from venture capital firms to invest at valuations as high as US$800 billion, Business Insider reported this week. The company is also planning an initial public offering.
