Anthropic has put London at the center of its latest expansion drive after announcing new office space for 800 people in the city. The move gives the Claude maker a much larger base in one of its key markets outside the United States, where it already employs more than 200 staff. OpenAI has also strengthened its London presence by signing a lease for its first permanent office in the city.
Anthropic targets larger London footprint in Knowledge Quarter
According to CNBC, Anthropic said it will open new office space in London for 800 people. The company said it already has more than 200 staff in the city. It chose the Knowledge Quarter, where several AI firms already operate.
Pip White, Anthropic’s head of EMEA North, linked the move to hiring and growth. White said London is one of Anthropic’s most important hubs outside the United States. White added that the new site gives the company room to expand.
White also said the UK offers strong AI talent and institutions that understand AI safety. Anthropic placed those points at the center of its London push. The company has said that the new move is part of its research and commercial expansion in Europe.
The announcement followed reports that UK officials had tried to attract Anthropic more aggressively. It also came after friction between Anthropic and the US Pentagon over model use. Anthropic released Claude Code during this broader expansion phase.
Anthropic also introduced Mythos AI, which it said can identify software weaknesses and security flaws. Anthropic said its annualized revenue has passed $30 billion. It also said more than 1,000 businesses each spend over $1 million yearly.
OpenAI formalizes London base with first permanent office
As we had reported earlier, OpenAI has signed a lease for its first permanent London office. The company said the 88,500 square foot site will support more than 500 team members. OpenAI also said it currently employs about 200 people in London.
OpenAI said the new office supports its plan to expand research, engineering, and operations in one location. In February, the company said London would become its largest research hub outside the United States. The lease now gives that plan a permanent base.
Phoebe Thacker, OpenAI’s London site lead, described the city as a strong place for expansion. Thacker said the UK has deep talent and a strong AI track record. She also said London serves as a key hub for OpenAI’s research teams.
The company presented the new office as part of a wider UK hiring strategy. It also linked the office plan to updated UK infrastructure plans and fresh financing disclosures. OpenAI said the larger site gives it room for continued hiring and development.
The London lease places OpenAI and Anthropic on separate growth tracks in the same city. OpenAI’s new office targets more than 500 workers, while Anthropic’s planned space reaches 800. Both companies said London plays a central role in their international expansion plans.
Anthropic vs. OpenAI: Who wins the AI race?
OpenAI and Anthropic now sit at the center of the commercial LLM market. OpenAI built a broad consumer reach through ChatGPT and the GPT model family. Anthropic grew into a leading enterprise-focused rival through the Claude line. The two companies reflect different operating priorities. OpenAI has focused on consumer products, multimodal tools, and rapid model changes. Anthropic has focused more on enterprise trust, safety research, and long context handling.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 in San Francisco. Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, including Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei. Each company supports large-scale developer and enterprise use cases.
OpenAI’s latest flagship line includes GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, and GPT-5.4 nano. Anthropic’s current line includes Claude Opus 4.6, Sonnet 4.6, and Haiku 4.5. Both AI companies support context windows of around 1 million tokens. Both companies have taken a different approach when it comes to cloud partners. OpenAI works closely with Microsoft and relies on Azure for API calls, while Anthropic’s main training partner is Amazon Web Services, while Google also holds a stake.
Enterprise reach also separates the two firms. OpenAI holds more across chatbot deployment and enterprise knowledge systems. On the other side, Anthropic gets most of its revenue from enterprise customers and counts Fortune 10 companies among its users. The product gap remains clearest in multimodal features. OpenAI supports text, images, audio, and video across its broader ecosystem. Anthropic supports text, image input, document analysis, and interactive visual outputs in chat.