OpenAI will expand its London research center into its largest hub outside the United States, setting the stage for an intensified battle with Google DeepMind for top artificial intelligence talent in the British capital.
ChatGPT’s developer said it would significantly increase the size of its London operation, which currently employs about 30 researchers, but did not disclose specific staffing targets or investment figures. The move represents a strategic deepening of its presence in the UK at a time when competition for elite AI engineers has become one of the fiercest recruitment wars in the global tech industry.
OpenAI, whose European headquarters remains in Dublin, said London offers a “unique concentration of world-class talent in machine learning and science” as well as a strong culture of interdisciplinary collaboration.
The expansion is widely seen as a direct challenge to DeepMind, which employs around 2,000 people in the UK and has long dominated the UK AI research ecosystem.
Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief research officer, acknowledged that the company has already recruited employees from DeepMind and expects to continue to do so. He said OpenAI’s appeal lies partly in its culture.
“We are known to be a bottom-up laboratory,” Chen said. “We let researchers pursue their research directions and turn them into company-level bets.” In contrast, he suggested, Google’s approach could be “a little more top-down.”
The competition for AI talent has driven compensation to extraordinary levels. Senior engineers in large AI labs can receive packages worth well over £1 million, often made up of salary, bonuses and equity. Reports of multimillion-dollar offers have emerged in the United States as companies race to attract leading researchers.
As a private company, OpenAI can offer equity investments that can increase significantly in value if the company eventually goes public. It also made secondary sales of shares easier, allowing employees to monetize some of their holdings – providing a strong incentive for recruiting.
Chen said compensation will remain “very competitive,” adding: “AI talent is very valuable and we need to be competitive everywhere.”
The expansion was welcomed by British politicians who wanted to position Britain as a global AI powerhouse.
Technology Minister Liz Kendall described the move as “a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s global leadership position at the forefront of AI research”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “delighted to see OpenAI anchor its major new research center here,” arguing that the capital’s academic institutions and tech ecosystem make it a natural home for the next wave of AI innovation.
The announcement comes as the UK government seeks to attract high-growth technology companies and position AI as a key driver of productivity and competitiveness as part of its broader economic strategy.
OpenAI’s expansion follows internal warnings from its chief executive Sam Altman that the company is facing increasing competition from rivals such as Google and Anthropic. Altman has previously described the race in advanced AI development as a “Code Red” moment for the company.
Chen said recent advances in so-called AI agents — autonomous software capable of performing tasks with limited oversight — marked a significant turning point for the industry.
“There’s something happening in AI that feels like a big shift,” he said. “We’ve reached a level where we can rely on agents and use them in real-world workflows.”
He described how researchers can now delegate the execution of experiments to AI systems, allowing them to interpret the results and refine hypotheses. He suggested that this would increasingly change not only research roles, but also broader “analyst-style” jobs.
However, Chen cautioned that such systems still depend on human oversight and design. “Agents cannot ideate and develop the experimental design themselves,” he said.
As AI capabilities accelerate, public concerns about job displacement and social impacts have grown. Recent essays questioning the pace and impact of AI development are widespread and have contributed to volatility in technology markets.
Chen acknowledged that “external perceptions of AI have shifted in a more negative direction,” but argued that many practical applications – particularly in the areas of productivity and research – remain underestimated.
“There are many positive uses for active ingredients,” he said. “This is something we need to emphasize as an industry.”
With OpenAI’s commitment to expand in London, the capital is poised to become an even more intense battleground in the global race for dominance in advanced AI – with research talent, capital incentives and cultural positioning now as important as computing power itself.
