Anthropic opens Seoul office amid U.S. AI restrictions
June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced the opening of a Seoul office and a series of partnerships with South Korean government agencies, universities and technology firms on Wednesday, days after the Trump administration imposed export controls restricting access to its most advanced AI models.
The expansion comes less than a week after Washington ordered Anthropic to suspend foreign nationals' access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, citing national security concerns.
According to reporting by The Washington Post, U.S. officials became alarmed after learning that a South Korean telecommunications company they suspected of having ties to China had received access to Mythos through Anthropic's advanced-access program. WIRED later identified the company as SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier, though the company has denied having ties to China.
Anthropic said Wednesday that it opened a Seoul office and signed an MOU with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT to support safe and responsible adoption of AI across the public sector. The company also highlighted collaborations with major Korean firms including SK Telecom, LG CNS and Naver Cloud, and said it would work with the National AI Research Lab, a consortium that includes leading universities such as KAIST, Korea University, Yonsei University and POSTECH.
"What I see in Korea are teams who understand that innovation and safety are two sides of the same coin," KiYoung Choi, Anthropic's Korea representative director, said in a statement. "Opening an office in Seoul gives a long-term home to our work alongside the people shaping Korean leadership in AI."
Anthropic said South Korea has emerged as one of its most important international markets, citing strong adoption of its Claude AI model among developers, startups and enterprises. The country ranked 12th among 116 countries in per-capita Claude usage, according to a company report released in March.
SK Telecom, one of Anthropic's closest Korean partners, invested $100 million in the company in 2023 and has collaborated on telecommunications-focused AI development. The carrier was among roughly 150 organizations granted access to Mythos through Anthropic's Project Glasswing cybersecurity initiative before its access was reportedly revoked at the request of the U.S. government.
At a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday, Anthropic international managing director Chris Ciauri declined to elaborate on Washington's restrictions on the advanced models.
"We are not going to comment on Project Glasswing at this point," he said.
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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 4:54 AM.