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Anthropic and Hg agree to create an AI consultancy for European companies, according to the Financial Times
IA en un minuto newsroom · Editor: Jon Elgezabal
In 30 seconds
Anthropic and British group Hg will set up an independent AI consultancy aimed at European firms by the end of the year, with bases in London and Berlin. Its consultants and engineers will help build new products or push forward projects already underway. It is the first time Anthropic has backed such a firm in Europe, after creating Ode in the United States.
Anthropic has struck a deal with Hg, a British investment group focused on software, to launch an independent consultancy in Europe that helps companies bring AI into their business. The Financial Times reported it, in an article that Expansión has translated into Spanish.
The new firm will bring together AI consultants and engineers. Their job will be to advise European companies, both to build new products based on the technology and to move forward with projects they have already started, and it will focus on software companies that sell to large clients or to other professional sectors. It will also work with the companies Hg invests in.
It is expected to open at the end of this year, with offices in London and Berlin. Anthropic will put in money from its own balance sheet and Hg will contribute through the funds it manages, including HgCapital Trust, which is listed in London. The article does not say how much each partner will invest. Hg already has a team of 150 AI specialists who bring it to the companies in its portfolio, and the consultancy will not replace it. Anthropic has worked since 2024 with companies owned by Hg and with other European investment firms.
It is the first independent European consultancy backed by Anthropic. This year it already set up a similar services company in the United States called Ode, together with investment firms Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, with a planned investment of $1.5 billion and with Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global also taking part. Its rival OpenAI launched OpenAI Deployment Company in May, a joint venture with TPG, Advent, Bain Capital and Brookfield to speed up the adoption of its products.
According to the FT, AI companies setting up their own consultancies is a new threat to Accenture and to the Big Four (Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC), which make a lot of money helping other companies take up new technologies. The paper adds that Anthropic is looking for new revenue to justify what it spends on data centers and to support its planned stock market listing, after its revenue grew more slowly in the third quarter. The deal also comes as European investors and politicians try to narrow the United States' lead in AI and speed up its use across the continent.
Why it matters · analysis and opinion
The deal confirms that selling access to a model is no longer enough: the business also lies in helping each company turn it into something that works day to day. That role used to belong to the big consultancies, which now see the technology provider stepping onto their turf with a partner that opens the door to its whole portfolio of companies. For European businesses it means having specialist teams close by, although prices, headcount and whether it will work only with Anthropic's models are still unknown. Anyone weighing up an AI project can take it as a sign that the supply of implementation help is going to grow, and that it pays to compare providers before committing to one.
Source: Expansión · Written with the help of AI: how we make the news
