Anthropic has recruited Monzo cofounder and ex-CEO Tom Blomfield to join its AI compute team.
The US-based tech giant, valued at $965bn in May, has been on a global hiring spree in recent months, opening new offices across Europe and offering bumper pay packages for engineering talent.
Blomfield announced the move on X on Monday, saying he would take a leave of absence from startup accelerator Y Combinator, where he has been a group partner since 2021.
“I’ll be working with [Anthropic cofounder] Tom Brown on the compute team,” Blomfield wrote on social media platform X. “Powerful AI has the potential to improve the life of every human on earth and, as we enter the early stages of recursive self-improvement, availability of compute becomes one of the most important issues to solve.”
Anthropic has been expanding rapidly outside the US as competition for AI talent intensifies.
The company has opened offices in European tech hubs including London, Dublin and Zurich, while also hiring researchers and engineers from startups, universities and rival AI labs.
The company has also deepened its presence in Europe through partnerships with startups and enterprises adopting its Claude models.
Last month, Anthropic launched Claude Science, a suite of AI tools aimed at automating research tasks in biology and chemistry, prompting European life sciences startups to assess how the technology could reshape drug discovery and scientific research.
Blomfield stepped down as Monzo’s CEO in 2020 after launching the UK challenger bank in 2015. Following a stint leading Y Combinator’s growth programme, he has become one of Europe’s best-known startup investors and mentors, backing a range of early-stage technology companies.
