TL;DR

Anthropic is teaming up with Hg, the London buyout firm, to create a consultancy that places AI engineers inside European companies, the Financial Times reported on 23 October, citing people familiar with the plans. The business will run from London and Berlin and should open before 2026 is out. Anthropic has not previously backed a standalone consultancy in Europe.

How it will work

Its engineers will take one of two roles at a client: designing new AI products from scratch, or helping with work already under way. Hg’s own portfolio businesses will be among the clients, alongside B2B software firms and other white-collar organisations. Funding comes from both sides: Anthropic from its balance sheet, and Hg, which specialises in buying software companies, through its managed funds, among them HgCapital Trust, listed in London. An FT picture caption says the partners hope to build a business worth more than $10bn within five years.

Hg has an in-house team of 150 AI experts serving its portfolio, which one source said would stay in place. The relationship is not new: Anthropic’s work with Hg-owned companies dates back to 2024. Neither firm would comment.

Part of a wider pattern

It follows two similar ventures from the frontier labs. Earlier this year Anthropic set up Ode in the US with Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, backed by a planned $1.5bn. In May, OpenAI created its Deployment Company with four buyout firms, Brookfield, Bain Capital, Advent and TPG.

The FT presents these ventures as a threat to the profitable technology advisory businesses of Accenture and the Big Four: PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte. Following up the FT’s report, City AM noted that Accenture’s New York-listed shares had dropped by more than 4% by Friday afternoon.

Looking Forward

The FT links the move to Anthropic’s search for new revenue to support its planned IPO, at a time when investors are questioning AI valuations. For UK businesses, in our view the more practical question is access. A London hub means engineers from a frontier lab working directly inside European software firms, which could change how quickly Hg-style portfolio companies adopt AI. For the Big Four’s UK practices, it adds a competitor that sells the model maker’s own expertise.