Anthropic has agreed to back a new independent European AI consultancy with London-based private equity firm Hg, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. It would be the first standalone consultancy Anthropic has backed in Europe, with hubs in London and Berlin and a launch expected by the end of the year; neither company commented to the outlets that followed up the report.

The venture will embed consultants and engineers inside European businesses — especially B2B software firms — to design new AI products and support projects already under way, and will also work across Hg's own portfolio. Anthropic is investing from its balance sheet, while Hg invests through its funds, including the London-listed HgCapital Trust; Hg already employs about 150 AI experts across its holdings, and that team is not being replaced.

The structure mirrors the labs' US playbook: Anthropic co-founded Ode, a US services firm with Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, earlier this year, and OpenAI set up its Deployment Company with TPG, Advent, Bain Capital and Brookfield. It puts the model labs in direct competition with Accenture and the Big Four for enterprise implementation budgets.