Anthropic has become the latest AI firm to expand its office footprint in recent weeks, taking space in the Knowledge Quarter, a 67-acre hub around London’s King’s Cross.
The firm behind the Claude AI chatbot will expand its current London workforce of 200 with a new space for 800 people. The office will be its first permanent presence in London.
The Knowledge Quarter is already home to a number of AI firms, including OpenAI, Google, DeepMind and Meta.
The exact location of Anthropic’s new office has not been disclosed, but is believed to be British Land and Royal London Asset Management’s One Triton Square, which reopened its doors following a £400m revamp last October.
The 300,000 sq ft office and laboratory scheme had previously entirely pre-let to Dentsu Aegis and then Facebook owner Meta, but the building was eventually taken back by British Land after a deal was agreed with the latter to surrender its lease with a payment of £149m in 2023.
Pip White, Anthropic’s head of EMEA north, 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.
“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 expansion follows reports last month of a push led by the government to encourage the AI firm to expand its UK operations following a fallout between the company and the US government over the defence-related use of its AI models.
OpenAI last week announced plans for its first permanent office in London, taking 88,500 sq ft of space at Regent Quarter in King’s Cross.
The company said it harboured ambitions to establish London as its largest research hub outside the US, although the signing came just days after the firm revealed it would be shelving its UK AI infrastructure investment project Stargate UK.
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