OpenAI’s decision to plant its flag in King’s Cross with a permanent headquarters in London, just days after it walked away from a major data center project in the North East, reveals something important about where the real value of Britain’s artificial intelligence ambitions lies: it lies in people, not in the power grids.
The ChatGPT developer has secured an 88,500 square foot space in Regent Quarter, which can accommodate 544 employees. This is a clear signal that he wants to more than double the approximately 200 people he currently employs in the areas of research, technology, politics, marketing and sales in the capital. About 30 of them are researchers, and the company is committed to making London its largest research center outside the United States.
The move comes at a politically sensitive time. Last week, OpenAI shelved its Stargate data center plans for Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, citing high energy costs and uncertainty over the future of UK copyright law. This project would have deployed around 8,000 Nvidia chips in a designated AI growth zone and was widely seen as a cornerstone of Sir Keir Starmer’s ambitions to boost the UK’s sovereign computing capacity.
Benedict Macon-Cooney, Chief AI and Innovation Officer at the Tony Blair Institute, captured the tension well, pointing out that while the UK is excelling as a talent hub, it continues to struggle to secure the large-scale AI infrastructure needed to compete globally.
But not everyone sees data center decline as the more meaningful indicator. Saul Klein, founder of venture capital firm Phoenix Court, argued that signing a commercial real estate lease is a far stronger commitment than headline-grabbing announcements about hyperscale computing. He suggested that a company cannot simply forego renting office space and staffing it with employees.
Klein’s firm called the King’s Cross corridor the third most productive technology cluster in the world, after the Bay Area of San Francisco and Beijing, home to thousands of venture capital firms and more than 200 unicorns. Residents of the neighborhood already include Google DeepMind, Meta, University College London, the Francis Crick Institute and the Alan Turing Institute, as well as homegrown AI success stories like Synthesia and Wayve. Proximity to King’s Cross, St Pancras and Euston also provides unrivaled connectivity throughout the UK and mainland Europe.
OpenAI isn’t the only one eyeing expansion in London. Anthropic, its closest competitor, is reportedly in talks with both London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the government about expanding its own presence in the UK, where it also employs around 200 people.
The government, meanwhile, has sought to boost Britain’s credentials in basic AI research, announcing £40 million in funding over six years for a new Blue Sky research lab.
Phoebe Thacker, global head of data research programs at OpenAI and head of the London office, pointed to the wide range of UK talent and the growing adoption of AI tools among UK companies and institutions as key drivers of the investment.
For the UK tech sector, the message is encouragingly clear: even if infrastructure plans fail, the lure of world-class talent remains irresistible.
