OpenAI announced plans to transform its London office into the largest research center outside the United States.
Company – which one established an office in Great Britain in 2023 – says it will expand its London research team by attracting emerging talent from leading British universities. It did not specify how many researchers it would employ.
“The UK is home to world-class talent and leading research institutions and universities, making it the perfect place to conduct important research that will ensure our AI is safe, useful and benefits everyone,” said Mark Chen, research director at OpenAI, in a statement.
These plans put OpenAI in direct competition for top research talent with Google DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab run by British researcher Demis Hassabis based in London. DeepMind has long been cooperating with the Universities of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, where it is a sponsor professorial, finances researchAND cooperates with researchers.
At a recent careers fair at the University of Oxford, the floor was packed with students looking for technical positions and recruiters recruiting for artificial intelligence roles. “Demand and supply are increasing on both sides, even throughout the year,” says Jonathan Black, director of careers at the University of Oxford. “It’s a really positive sign for something like this to come along.”
OpenAI’s expansion in London could create a flywheel effect whereby its early-career researchers then set up modern labs in the UK, says Tom Wilson, a partner at venture capital firm Seedcamp. “We have seen many examples over the years,” he says. “This is where these types of announcements can have an even greater impact than the initial hire…the second-order effects can be great.”
According to the company, the OpenAI team in London will continue to contribute to products such as Codex and GPT-5.2, but will now “own” certain aspects of model development related to security, reliability and performance evaluation.
In a statement, UK Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall described the announcement as “a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s world-leading position at the forefront of artificial intelligence research.”
The announcement coincides with push in the UK scaling the country’s data center and energy infrastructure to meet the voracious demand for computing power among artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI.