Anthropic Expands London Operations in AI Talent War with OpenAI

US AI company Anthropic has launched a major expansion in London, competing with OpenAI for top talent. The move is part of a broader bid for influence in the tech industry.

Anthropic is expanding its London footprint with new office space for about 800 employees, days after rival OpenAI announced its first permanent office in the UK capital, marking a sharp escalation in the AI talent war. Anthropic, maker of the Claude AI assistant, currently has more than 200 staff in London and is taking space in the city's Knowledge Quarter, alongside OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta and Wayve.

The driver is talent. Anthropic's EMEA leadership flagged London's 'exceptional pool of AI talent' as central to the move, and AI firms signed for roughly 565,000 square feet of London office space in the first four months of 2026, well above the 211,000 square feet leased in all of 2025.

For markets, the buildout signals that well-funded US labs are intensifying competition for engineers and researchers, bidding up compensation in ways that pressure local startups. The expansion is a read-through on how aggressively private AI leaders are deploying capital to secure talent ahead of widely anticipated public listings.