OpenAI bags 88,000 sq ft Dublin HQ as AI giants’ European office race heats up — TFN

• OpenAI has leased 88,000 sq. toes at Dublin’s Tropical Fruit Warehouse for its new EU headquarters and plans so as to add 250 jobs over the subsequent two years.
• Anthropic expanded to Dublin 4 months earlier, tripling its workplace house and including 200 roles in March.
• Each corporations’ Dublin workplaces already maintain important regulatory tasks beneath GDPR, whereas enforcement particulars for the AI Act are nonetheless being established.

OpenAI is leasing 88,000 sq. toes on the Tropical Fruit Warehouse in Dublin’s docklands as its new European Union headquarters. It confirmed plans so as to add 250 jobs in Eire over the subsequent two years.

The announcement was made at an occasion attended by Taoiseach Micheál Martin. This follows Anthropic’s growth in Dublin 4 months earlier and Bloomberg’s report that both companies were seeking more office space in the city.

The lease

The brand new positions will cowl go-to-market, engineering, person operations, human assets, finance, privateness, authorized, and company or secretarial features. This expands on the greater than 100 staff OpenAI presently has in Eire. The corporate will relocate to the docklands website, developed by Iput Actual Property, in late 2026.

“We proceed to take a position and develop in Eire as we meet rising demand throughout the area. Our new EU headquarters displays our long-term dedication, serving to companies, builders and communities profit from our innovation,” says Emma Redmond, affiliate common counsel and head of OpenAI Eire.

The constructing was initially supposed for TikTok’s Dublin growth earlier than the corporate consolidated its Irish operations elsewhere, according to the Irish Times. Reactions on LinkedIn to the earlier office search had been blended. Some welcomed the brand new jobs, whereas others questioned Eire’s tax incentives for US expertise corporations.

Anthropic acquired there first

OpenAI will not be alone in increasing its presence in Dublin. Tech Funding Information has tracked this trend since December 2025, when each corporations had been looking for about 25,000 sq. toes every.

Anthropic moved first in Dublin, confirming in March that it will broaden its workplace sixfold to 21,000 sq. toes and add 200 roles throughout engineering, gross sales, finance, authorized, and operations. This was on account of important year-on-year income progress throughout Europe, the Center East, and Africa.

This growth is a part of a broader sample, together with Anthropic’s new Milan office and a 158,000-square-foot lease in London’s Knowledge Quarter. OpenAI’s 88,000-square-foot dedication in Dublin reveals its ambitions within the metropolis have grown considerably since December.

Why Dublin carries regulatory weight

Dublin has lengthy attracted AI corporations, with Google, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok all establishing European headquarters there on account of its English-speaking expertise pool, beneficial tax atmosphere, and entry to the EU market.

OpenAI Eire Restricted has served as the info controller for European Financial Space and Swiss customers since 2024, leveraging GDPR’s one-stop-shop mechanism to designate Eire’s Knowledge Safety Fee as its lead supervisory authority, much like Meta and TikTok.

Enforcement of the EU AI Act remains to be evolving, with tasks divided between nationwide market surveillance authorities and the EU AI Workplace in Brussels, which instantly oversees general-purpose fashions resembling GPT and Claude.

In consequence, Dublin’s DPC doesn’t robotically assume complete authority beneath the AI Act. Each corporations are rising their privateness and authorized groups in Dublin, which will probably be necessary as AI Act enforcement constructions are finalised over the subsequent yr.

OpenAI and Anthropic have collectively dedicated to 450 new roles in Dublin inside a four-month interval, along with the roughly 160 staff they have already got within the metropolis.