Anthropic opens Sydney office, names NZ & Australia chief

Anthropic has appointed Theo Hourmouzis as General Manager for Australia and New Zealand and opened an office in Sydney.

Hourmouzis joins from Snowflake, where he was Senior Vice President for Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN. He will lead Anthropic's local team and set strategy for customers in both countries as the artificial intelligence company expands its regional presence.

The appointment adds a senior regional executive as Anthropic looks to deepen ties with corporate customers, research institutions and government in Australia. It also gives the group a physical base in Sydney after a period of local activity that included an agreement with the Australian government and partnerships with domestic organisations.

Before joining Anthropic, Hourmouzis held leadership roles at Snowflake, Cohesity and Sysdig. He has spent more than two decades working across the Asia-Pacific technology sector with enterprise and public sector organisations.

Anthropic has been building a network of Australian relationships around its Claude artificial intelligence models and products. Its local team will work with customers including Commonwealth Bank and Quantium, alongside research partners such as Australian National University, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Curtin University.

The expansion also includes work tied to a memorandum of understanding signed with the Australian government. Anthropic linked the move to Australia's National AI Plan and said the new management structure would reflect local economic conditions and customer needs.

The company also highlighted a series of commercial partnerships in Australia and New Zealand, including collaborations with Canva and Xero, as well as work with YMCA South Australia through its Claude for Nonprofits programme.

Canva is integrating its Design Engine and Visual Suite into Claude Design, while Xero has entered a multi-year partnership to bring Claude into its services and connect Xero's financial tools and data with Claude.ai. Anthropic has cast those deals as part of a broader effort to embed its software in workplace and organisational workflows.

YMCA South Australia operates more than 65 community locations and employs about 1,250 staff. The non-profit has used Claude to build internal artificial intelligence tools for analysing operational data, producing branded content and bringing technical work in-house.

"Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are thinking carefully about how to adopt AI, and they want partners who take safety and rigor as seriously as they take the opportunity," said Theo Hourmouzis, General Manager of Australia and New Zealand, Anthropic.

"That's what drew me to Anthropic. I've spent my career working with businesses and governments across this region, and the organizations that do best with AI will be the ones that pair ambition with discipline."

Chris Ciauri, Anthropic's Managing Director of International, said the appointment reflects the company's view that responsible development and deployment of artificial intelligence will be central to economic growth.

"Theo's appointment reflects the conviction we share with the Australian government that AI can drive economic growth when it's developed and deployed responsibly," Ciauri said. "He's spent decades helping organisations adopt new technology, and he'll build the team and partnerships we need to support our customers across Australia and New Zealand for the long term."

Regional build-out

The Sydney office is part of a wider international expansion as competition intensifies among artificial intelligence developers to secure customers, public sector links and local staff outside the US. Anthropic said the Australian opening follows new offices in Tokyo and Bengaluru, with Seoul next in its regional rollout.

Australia has emerged as a key market for global artificial intelligence companies as the federal government weighs policy settings aimed at supporting adoption while addressing safety and governance concerns. For Anthropic, which has sought to distinguish itself through an emphasis on responsible deployment, the local policy environment offers a chance to align commercial expansion with government engagement.

At the same time, demand from Australian businesses to test and deploy generative artificial intelligence tools has given overseas developers reason to build local teams rather than rely solely on remote sales and support. Anthropic said momentum among Australian developers and enterprises using Claude helped drive the latest step.

The company's comments also suggest it sees Australia and New Zealand not simply as sales markets but as places to build longer-term research, public sector and partner relationships. That approach mirrors a broader pattern in the artificial intelligence industry, where companies are seeking local credibility as governments and large organisations scrutinise how these systems are introduced into sensitive work.

"The future for us is about Claude becoming embedded infrastructure, a core part of how we run the organisation," said Devan Seamans, Head of Marketing & Technology, YMCA South Australia. "That requires a platform with the enterprise governance and controls to match the obligations of a large not-for-profit. We want to be a leader in the Australian NFP space with AI adoption, and Anthropic's approach gives us the confidence to pursue that."