Anthropic leases 16-floor building in Manhattan, plans 1,700 desks; Airbnb buys $81.5M building in Gramercy. Expansions counter business-flight warnings.
Anthropic is leasing an entire 16-story office building at 330 Hudson Street in Manhattan. The AI startup plans to double its New York workforce this year, from fewer than 500 employees to more than 1,000. The space can hold 1,700 desks.
Airbnb is making its own bet. The company bought 281 Park Avenue South for $81.5 million, a six-story building in Gramercy. More than 600 employees will work there.
“New York is one of the main hubs for how AI is being put to work,” Anthropic chief commercial officer Paul Smith told the New York Post in a statement. “Doubling our team here and deepening our long-term commitment to the city will allow us to sit closer to that work.” Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said in a statement: “This building reflects our long-term commitment to the city and will be home to one of our largest employee hubs outside of San Francisco.”
Both moves come after a year of warnings from billionaires like Bill Ackman and Ken Griffin. Ackman said last year that if progressive candidate Zohran Mamdani became mayor, “You're going to see the flight of businesses from New York.” Griffin urged business leaders to “fight for their city” and feuded with Mamdani over a proposed pied-a-terre tax. Yet the expansions run contrary to those predictions.
Local politicians welcomed the investments. City Comptroller Mark Levine told NY1 he would rather have AI tools built in New York so the city benefits from the economic vitality. Gov. Kathy Hochul touted the state as “the place if your business wants to grow and thrive.”
For the office leasing market, these are the kind of deals landlords have been waiting for. Manhattan office vacancies hit record levels after the pandemic, and demand from tech and AI companies has become one of the few bright spots. Anthropic’s lease at 330 Hudson Street fills a building that could have stayed dark. Airbnb’s purchase signals a long-term commitment from a company that once fought the city over short-term rental rules. Local Law 18, adopted in 2022, effectively banned most Airbnb listings in New York. Buying a permanent office suggests the company sees enough value in the city’s talent and client base to keep a large hub there despite the regulatory friction.
Anthropic is hiring for New York roles across research, engineering, policy, sales, and operations. The company’s careers site lists the city as an available location for technical and research positions. Airbnb’s New York-area workforce numbers more than 600 employees.
Neither company responded to Fortune’s request for comment.
Drafted by a large language model from the source reporting linked above, then screened by automated publishing checks. It is not read by a journalist before publication. Some articles cite our Alpha Score. Verify prices and figures against the original source. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.