OpenAI is opening its third global office in Dublin, Ireland, the company announced on Thursday. The company that has its headquarters in San Francisco started its international expansion with an office in London less than three months ago.
“We plan to grow a team through this year in Ireland that will propel our operations, trust and safety, go-to-market, security engineering, and legal work as part of our ongoing commitment to better serve the European market,” said the ChatGPT-maker in a statement.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, commenting on the announcement, stated, “Ireland blends a talented workforce with support for innovation and responsible business growth. We’re excited for this partnership as we expand in Europe.”
The AI firm currently has nine job openings for its latest office on its careers website, which includes roles like Account Director, Customer Success Manager, Ireland Policy and Partnerships Lead, Media Relations Europe Lead, and Software Engineer (Privacy).
OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Office Jason Kwon, speaking to Reuters, said that they plan to add more roles in Dublin in the near future, “We like to grow deliberately and not too rapidly because we want to make sure that the culture of the company is established first in new offices before we scale up.”
The company executive also told the publication that tax implications did not play a role in their decision to open an office in Dublin as OpenAI is not profitable.
Simon Coveney, Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment for Ireland, said, “In order for Ireland to benefit from AI, it is essential to ensure that we have a strong, supportive ecosystem in place and we believe that companies such as OpenAI operating in Ireland can help build on our foundation to support emerging AI research and innovation, and ensure our workforce is well prepared.”
OpenAI CEO had previously hinted that they could consider leaving Europe if they could not comply with the upcoming AI regulations by European Union. Following the media reports, he took to Twitter a day later to confirm that OpenAI has no intentions of leaving Europe.
very productive week of conversations in europe about how to best regulate AI! we are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave.
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 26, 2023
The regulation known as EU AI Act, passed in June of this year, has not yet been enacted. The majority of its provisions are expected to take effect 24 months after being put into force.
The new office European office would potentially enable OpenAI to engage more effectively with European lawmakers and ensure compliance with the upcoming regulations well in advance of their implementation.
