OpenAI Opens in London
OpenAI is opening its first permanent London office, with capacity to more than double local headcount as the company expands its European presence. Reports note the London team already covers research, engineering, customer support, policy and sales roles. (tech.eu, gulfbusiness.com)
OpenAI has signed a lease for its first permanent London office, an 88,500-square-foot site with room for more than 500 staff. (cnbc.com) The new office is in King’s Cross, and it would more than double OpenAI’s current London headcount of about 200 people. CNBC and Tech.eu both reported the move on April 13, 2026. (tech.eu) OpenAI opened a London office in 2023 as its first international expansion. In February 2026, the company said London would become its largest research hub outside the United States. (openai.com, tech.eu) That London team already spans research, engineering, policy, customer support and sales, according to reports on the new lease. OpenAI said in July 2025 that its UK staff had grown to more than 100 people across research, engineering and go-to-market roles. (tech.eu, openai.com) The expansion comes as OpenAI builds out a wider European footprint. The company announced a Dublin office in September 2023 and said in late 2025 that its European headquarters there had grown to more than 50 employees across governance, privacy engineering, safety and legal work. (openai.com, openai.com) The London lease also lands days after OpenAI paused a large United Kingdom data-center project tied to its Stargate infrastructure plans, according to CNBC and Tech.eu. The office move shifts the immediate focus from power-hungry computing sites to hiring researchers, engineers and commercial staff in the capital. (cnbc.com, tech.eu) OpenAI and the UK government had already formalized closer ties in July 2025 through a memorandum of understanding on artificial intelligence adoption, infrastructure and technical exchange. In that announcement, OpenAI said the UK was one of its top three markets globally for paid subscribers and application programming interface developers. (openai.com) The new King’s Cross office gives OpenAI a long-term base in the same city it picked for its first overseas outpost three years ago. This time, the space is sized for a much larger operation. (openai.com, cnbc.com)
