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Anthropic and Hg Plan European AI Consultancy, FT Reports
Anthropic and private equity firm Hg have agreed to back an independent European AI consultancy, the Financial Times reports. The firm is expected to place engineers and consultants inside businesses, with hubs planned in London and Berlin.
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
Anthropic and Hg target European companies
Anthropic and private equity firm Hg have agreed to back an independent European consultancy that will place AI engineers and consultants inside businesses, the Financial Times reported on October 23, 2026. The planned firm would help clients design new products using AI and support projects already under way, according to people familiar with the arrangement cited by the FT. Anthropic and Hg declined to comment to the newspaper.
The consultancy is expected to launch by the end of 2026, with hubs in London and Berlin. Its target clients include software companies selling to businesses and firms in other white-collar industries. The FT reported that the new company would also work with businesses in Hg’s investment portfolio.
Hg already has an AI team inside its portfolio
The proposed company would sit alongside—not replace—Hg’s existing AI specialists, one person familiar with the plan told the FT. Hg already has a team of 150 AI experts working across portfolio businesses, the newspaper reported. That gives the venture a potential route to clients through companies Hg owns, while creating a separate consultancy that can serve a broader corporate market.
Hg’s public announcement on September 21 described a separate expansion of its existing relationship with Anthropic: a strategic venture to bring Claude’s agentic AI capabilities to Hg portfolio companies. Hg said its portfolio then had more than 1,600 live AI projects, representing over $260 million in budgeted EBITDA impact. Those figures describe Hg’s portfolio work, not results from the newly reported consultancy.
“Agentic AI is transforming how people scale software businesses. With Claude, Hg’s portfolio gets frontier agentic AI, but also the highest safety standards so they can trust agents with critical workflows.”
Guillaume Princen, Head of International, Digital Native Businesses at Anthropic, in Hg’s September 21 announcement
A new route from models to implementation
The reported plan puts Anthropic closer to the work of deploying AI inside companies, beyond selling access to its Claude models. Engineers embedded with clients could help build AI-based products or adapt existing company projects; the FT’s sources did not describe the venture’s pricing, leadership or staffing plans. The report also did not specify how the two partners would divide ownership or funding.
Consulting work would place the venture in a market served by technology advisers such as Accenture and the Big Four professional-services firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. Those firms already advise companies on adopting new technology, the FT reported. AI vendors’ own deployment services could give customers more direct access to model developers, while adding a new competitor for established consultancies.
Hg’s portfolio supplies an early test bed
The arrangement builds on a relationship that dates to early 2024, according to Hg’s September announcement. The firms have worked together on staff training, hackathons and deployment projects across Hg’s portfolio. Hg’s public statement focused on that portfolio collaboration; it did not announce the separate European consultancy described by the FT.
The distinction matters: Hg’s disclosed AI projects and budgeted impact are not proof of what the new business will deliver. For now, the consultancy’s timeline, locations and services remain details attributed to people familiar with the plan, while both companies have declined to comment publicly to the FT.