OpenAI’s London expansion

OpenAI has signed a lease for its first permanent London office, with the site set to open in 2027. (cnbc.com) The new office is in Regent Quarter in King’s Cross, spans 88,500 square feet, and has capacity for 544 people. OpenAI currently has about 200 staff in London. (cnbc.com) OpenAI said in February that London would become its largest research hub outside the United States. The company’s London teams already include research, engineering, customer support, policy, and sales. (cnbc.com, (openai.com)) The move gives OpenAI a long-term base in a city where it first opened an office in June 2023. That 2023 launch was the company’s first international expansion. (openai.com) The timing is notable because OpenAI said on April 9 that it was pausing its Stargate United Kingdom data center project. CNBC reported the company cited regulatory concerns and high energy costs for that decision. (cnbc.com) That leaves OpenAI expanding in Britain through hiring and research space rather than through a large computing site. Reuters and CNBC both reported the London office as a separate signal of continued commitment to the United Kingdom. (reuters.com, (cnbc.com)) OpenAI has also been deepening ties with the British government. In August 2025, OpenAI and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced a memorandum of understanding on public-sector adoption, infrastructure, and technical exchange. (openai.com) In that same announcement, OpenAI said the United Kingdom was one of its top three markets globally for paid subscribers and application programming interface developers. It also said its London team had grown to more than 100 staff by August 2025. (openai.com) The new lease suggests OpenAI is concentrating future growth in a small number of global hubs where it can recruit researchers and engineers at scale. In London, that plan now has an address, a floorplate, and a 2027 opening date. (reuters.com, (cnbc.com))