Anthropic will open an office in Milan this month, the company confirmed Wednesday, adding Italy to a European roster that already spans London, Paris, Munich, Dublin, and Zurich. The move comes as the company's EMEA region is growing faster than any other part of the business, with run-rate revenue up roughly nine times year on year and large-business customer accounts rising tenfold in the same period.
Italy as the Natural Next Step
Europe has never been a single market for Anthropic, and the company has expanded through it by country. The London office, the company's first international base, now employs around 200 staff and hosted Code with Claude London in May, drawing hundreds of developers and live demonstrations from customers including Spotify and Delivery Hero. Paris and Munich followed in late 2025, anchoring a continental presence as European enterprises moved from exploratory pilots to structured AI procurement.
Milan is the next city in a deliberate sequence. "After France and Germany, Italy is a natural next step," said Chris Ciauri, Anthropic's managing director of international, in an interview with Il Corriere della Sera. Italy's industrial base spans manufacturing, fashion, design, and a growing technology sector concentrated in Milan's Porta Nuova district, giving Anthropic a dense pool of enterprise targets and a direct connection to a European market that has warmed to AI adoption faster than many expected.
Key Facts
- EMEA run-rate revenue growth~9× year on year
- EMEA large-business accounts growth~10× year on year
- London headcount~200 staff
- New European offices (2025-26)Paris, Munich, Milan
- International workforce plan~3× current size
EMEA Leads the Growth Chart
The numbers behind the expansion are notable even by the standards of the current AI cycle. Anthropic does not break out regional revenue publicly, but executives have characterized EMEA as the fastest-growing segment in the business, with run-rate figures that exceed the overall company growth rate across multiple consecutive quarters. Large-business accounts, the segment that anchors enterprise deals with the highest contract values, are tracking at ten times year-on-year growth in the region.
That pattern is partly structural. European enterprises have moved faster than their US counterparts to formalize AI adoption in finance, legal, and manufacturing, where regulatory compliance requirements make auditable, consistently-behaved AI tools more attractive than open-source alternatives. Anthropic's position as a safety-focused lab, with a documented Responsible Scaling Policy and a reputation for model consistency, has translated well in procurement conversations where reputational risk management matters. The company's growing London operation and the Code with Claude events are consistent with that positioning: a company visibly committing to European presence rather than serving the region from San Francisco.
"After France and Germany, Italy is a natural next step." Chris Ciauri, Managing Director of International, Anthropic
Tripling the International Team
Anthropic has indicated plans to roughly triple its international workforce to meet demand for Claude outside the United States. That target implies substantial hiring across every European market, and Milan will contribute to the pool. Italy produces a strong pipeline of AI researchers and engineers through institutions including Politecnico di Milano and Università Bocconi, and the city's concentration of professional services firms, consultancies, and digital agencies gives Anthropic a ready distribution channel into broader enterprise accounts.
Daniela Amodei, Anthropic's president and co-founder, has argued publicly that governments should move early on AI regulation to avoid repeating the mistakes made with social media, where safeguards lagged widespread adoption by years. Italy's data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, has engaged more deeply with generative AI compliance questions than most equivalent European bodies. A local team that can work directly with that regulator is a practical advantage for a company whose products process sensitive business information at scale.
The Road Ahead
Anthropic has not confirmed the next city on its European expansion list, but the pattern so far suggests a methodical move through the continent's major business centers. The EU AI Act, which moved into enforcement in late 2025, applies to products deployed across Italy and the broader Union, and navigating that compliance framework at scale requires local expertise in each market, not just a central legal team in San Francisco.
For European businesses evaluating AI deployments, the practical effect of Anthropic's expansion is a shorter path from initial interest to a signed contract. Local teams shorten procurement cycles, simplify compliance conversations, and make the kind of technical workshops possible that turn curiosity into committed usage. Whether those engagements can sustain nine-times revenue growth as the market matures is the question that will define whether EMEA remains Anthropic's fastest-growing region through the end of 2026. The company's recent funding trajectory suggests the bets on international expansion are supported by a balance sheet that can absorb the setup costs while waiting for returns.
