Anthropic, the US AI company behind the Claude chatbot, announced on Monday it will create more than 100 roles across Europe, primarily in its Dublin and London offices, as it appointed Guillaume Princen as its head of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The company, which is backed by Amazon and Google, said the new positions would span sales, engineering, research and business operations.

Princen, who previously led Stripe's European expansion and was chief executive officer of expenses management platform Mooncard, said the growth comes at a "critical moment when businesses need advanced AI capabilities".

"European organisations are increasingly choosing Claude for its intelligence, speed, and industry-leading coding abilities," Princen said. "To meet this remarkable demand, we're creating over 100 new roles this year dedicated to supporting our growing European customer base."

Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic, highlighted the strategic importance of the region to the company's future.

"Since launching Claude in Europe last year, we've seen rapid organic growth amongst businesses and consumers alike," Amodei said. "Finding the right leadership in Guillaume was the critical piece that allowed us to move forward with the thoughtful expansion we envision."

The announcement builds on Anthropic's growing European footprint, which expanded earlier this year with the opening of a small research-focused office in Zurich led by AI scientist Neil Houlsby.

Claude, which competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, has been deployed by companies including advertising group WPP, automaker BMW and pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk, according to Anthropic.

The expansion comes just weeks after Anthropic raised $3.5 billion at a $61.5 billion post-money valuation in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst and other investors.

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