Anthropic plans to open a Sydney office in the coming weeks—its fourth office in the Asia-Pacific region.
Anthropic said it had seen a growing demand from Australian and Zealand enterprise, startup and research customers for its services, including Canva, Commonwealth Bank and Quantium, as well as a host of start-ups in the AgTech, physical AI and climate tech sectors.
Australia and New Zealand rank fourth and eighth globally in Claude.ai usage, relative to population, according to Anthropic’s latest Economic Index.
The Sydney office joins Tokyo, Bengaluru and Seoul as APAC regional hubs.
Anthropic said that it plans to deepen its engagement with Australian institutions, and collaborate on projects that advance Australia’s national interests and priority sectors.
Anthropic’s executive team will visit Australia at the end of March to formalise some of these partnerships and meet with customers and policymakers.
“We’re excited by the ways organisations in Australia and New Zealand are applying AI to areas of national importance—financial services, agricultural technology, clean energy innovation, healthcare delivery, cutting-edge deep tech and scientific research, along with AI transformation in the enterprise,” Anthropic managing director of International, Chris Ciauri, said.
“Establishing a local presence will help us to develop strong partnerships in ANZ and ensure Claude is built with respect for the unique goals, opportunities, and challenges of the region.”
Anthropic will also explore opportunities to expand its computing capacity in Australia, which aligns with the Australian government’s ambitions to become a trusted destination for sustainable AI infrastructure.
In a blog post, Anthropic said it is exploring adding local capacity through third-party partners in Australia by using infrastructure already in place.
“This is among the most consistent requests we hear from Australian enterprises and government agencies, particularly those with data residency requirements,”the post added. “Beyond that, we’re in early conversations about longer-term infrastructure in the region, and we’ll share more as those plans take shape.”
Anthropic’s expansion to Australia comes amid a battle with the US Pentagon after it was placed on a blacklist for refusing to remove guardrails against using its AI for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.
