OpenAI is to expand its London research center to become its largest outside the United States, setting the stage for a fierce battle with Google DeepMind for top intelligence talent in the UK capital.
ChatGPT’s developer said it would significantly increase the size of its operations in London, which currently employs around 30 researchers, although it stopped short of disclosing specific headcount targets or investment figures. The move represents a strategic deepening of its presence in the UK at a time when competition for top AI engineers has become one of the fiercest hiring wars in global tech.
OpenAI, whose European headquarters are based in Dublin, said London provided “world-class talent in machine learning and science” and a strong culture of interdisciplinary collaboration.
The expansion is seen as a direct challenge to DeepMind, which employs around 2,000 staff in the UK and has long dominated Britain’s AI research agenda.
Mark Chen, OpenAI’s chief research officer, acknowledged that the company already employs DeepMind staff and is expected to continue to do so. He said OpenAI’s appeal is part of its culture.
“We’re a low-end lab,” Chen said. “We allow researchers to pursue their own lines of research and turn that into a bet at the company level.” In contrast, he suggested, Google’s approach could be “too top down”.
The competition for AI talent has driven compensation to extraordinary levels. Senior engineers at large AI labs can command packages worth more than £1m, often made up of salary, bonuses and equity. In the United States, reports of multi-million dollar offers have emerged as firms scramble to secure leading researchers.
As a private company, OpenAI can offer equity stakes that could increase in value if the company eventually goes public. It also helped the sale of secondary shares, which allowed workers to monetize part of their assets – creating a strong incentive to hire.
Chen said compensation will remain “very competitive”, adding: “AI talent is very valuable and we need to be competitive everywhere.”
The expansion has been welcomed by UK political leaders keen to position Britain as a global AI powerhouse.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall described the move as “a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s world-leading position at the cutting edge of AI research”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was “delighted that OpenAI is supporting its major research center here”, saying the capital’s academic institutions and tech ecosystem made it a natural home for the next wave of AI innovation.
The announcement comes as the UK government seeks to attract high-growth technology firms as part of its wider economic strategy, positioning AI as a key driver of productivity and competitiveness.
OpenAI’s expansion follows internal warnings from its chief executive, Sam Altman, that the company faces increasing competition from rivals including Google and Anthropic. Altman once described the race to advanced AI development as a “code red” moment for the company.
Chen said recent advances in so-called AI agents — autonomous software that can perform tasks with limited supervision — marked a turning point for the industry.
“There’s something happening in AI that feels like a game changer,” he said. “We’ve gotten to the point where we can trust agents and use them in real-world applications.”
He explained how researchers can now hand off experiments to AI systems, return to interpret results and refine ideas. This, he suggested, will further expand not only research roles but also the wider field of “analyst style”.
However, Chen cautioned that such systems always depend on human observation and design. “Agents can’t think and come up with a test design themselves,” he said.
As AI capabilities accelerate, public concerns about job displacement and societal impact have grown. Recent articles questioning the pace and implications of AI development have become widespread, contributing to the volatility of technology markets.
Chen admitted that “the outside perception of AI has changed for the worse” but asserted that many practical applications – especially in manufacturing and research – remain underappreciated.
“There are many good uses for agents,” he said. “That’s something we need to promote as an industry.”
As OpenAI commits to growth in London, the capital is poised to become an even stronger battleground in the global race to dominate advanced AI – with research talent, equity incentives and cultural standing now as important as computing power itself.
