Anthropic, the US artificial intelligence giant behind Claude, which dethroned ChatGPT on the App Store after a clash with the Trump administration’s Department of Defense over AI guardrails, will open an office in Sydney.
This will be Anthropic’s fourth Asia-Pacific location alongside Tokyo, Bengaluru and Seoul.
Anthropic’s US executives will visit Australia at the end of March to establish local partnerships and meet with customers and policymakers.
Australia’s move comes as the company is locked in an existential battle with the Trump administration over how its AI is used by the military.
US legal battle
Anthropic filed a lawsuit in California on Monday over the U.S. startup’s blacklisting by the Pentagon for refusing to use its AI to monitor U.S. citizens or deploy autonomous weapons.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk when CEO Dario Amodei refused to remove guardrails.
“These actions are unprecedented and illegal. The Constitution does not allow the government to use vast powers to punish companies for protected speech,” Anthropic’s lawsuit says, seeking to have the designation revoked.
A few days later, OpenAI’s Sam Altman signed a deal with the Department of Defense, his product ChatGPT received backlash, and Claude shot to the top of the app charts as AI users voted on downloads. Mr. Altman has been doing damage control ever since, trying to justify the deal.
Meanwhile, Antropic International’s Dr Chris Chiauli said he would hire a team in Sydney to deepen links with Australian institutions and collaborate on projects that advance Australia’s national interests and priorities.
“Establishing a local presence will help us build strong partnerships in ANZ and build Claude with respect for the region’s unique goals, opportunities and challenges,” he said.
Anthropic counts Canva, Quantium, and CommBank among its customers and says its initial focus is on supporting enterprise, startup, and research customers.
According to our latest economic indicators, Australia and New Zealand rank 4th and 8th in the world for Claude.ai usage relative to population.
The company said it is also looking to add local computing capacity through third-party partners in Australia using the infrastructure it already has in place.
