Mayor Sadiq Khan invites embattled AI firm Anthropic to expand in London

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan invited San Francisco-based AI developer Anthropic to expand operations in London.

“- Published London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan is inviting San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic to grow its footprint in his city, while criticizing the Trump administration for seeking retribution against the company”

BBC

He criticised the Trump administration for seeking retribution after the Pentagon designated Anthropic a supply chain risk.

BBC

The designation followed Anthropic boss Dario Amodei's refusal to give US defence agencies unfettered access to its AI tools.

In a letter to Amodei, Sir Sadiq wrote: "It is extremely concerning to see this kind of behaviour, which is a clear attempt to intimidate and punish Anthropic for refusing to remove ethical safeguards," and added "I applaud your steadfastness in the face of such pressure."

He offered to discuss how London could support the company to expand and be "a more significant location and platform for the future of Anthropic."

His office said there have been discussions this week with "senior leaders" of the company.

Anthropic said it planned to challenge the Pentagon's designation in court.

The Pentagon's designation is the first time a US company has been labelled a supply chain risk, which the government says means it considers Anthropic not secure enough for it to use.

BBC

In talks with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Amodei objected to the prospect of the Claude model being used for mass domestic surveillance or autonomous military targeting.

The Pentagon countered that the military must be able to use technology "for all lawful purposes" and argued those feared uses would violate the law and were not planned.

President Donald Trump last week said he would direct every federal agency to immediately stop using technology from Anthropic.

A White House spokesperson told the BBC: "As President Trump said, we will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our United States Military fights wars."